<P> The brothers Joseph - Michel and Jacques - Étienne Montgolfier developed a hot air balloon in Annonay , Ardeche , France , and demonstrated it publicly on September 19 , 1783 , making an unmanned flight lasting 10 minutes . After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals , the first balloon flight with humans aboard , a tethered flight , performed on or around October 15 , 1783 , by Jean - Francois pilatre de Rozier who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint - Antoine . Later that same day , Pilatre de Rozier became the second human to ascend into the air , reaching an altitude of 26 m ( 85 ft ) , the length of the tether . The first free flight with human passengers was made a few weeks later , on November 21 , 1783 . King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots , but de Rozier , along with Marquis François d'Arlandes , petitioned successfully for the honor . The first military use of a hot air balloon happened in 1794 during the battle of Fleurus , when the French used the balloon l'Entreprenant for observation . </P>
<P> The brothers Joseph - Michel and Jacques - Étienne Montgolfier developed a hot air balloon in Annonay , Ardeche , France , and demonstrated it publicly on September 19 , 1783 , making an unmanned flight lasting 10 minutes . After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals , the first balloon flight with humans aboard , a tethered flight , performed on or around October 15 , 1783 , by Jean - Francois pilatre de Rozier who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint - Antoine . Later that same day , Pilatre de Rozier became the second human to ascend into the air , reaching an altitude of 26 m ( 85 ft ) , the length of the tether . The first free flight with human passengers was made a few weeks later , on November 21 , 1783 . King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots , but de Rozier , along with Marquis François d'Arlandes , petitioned successfully for the honor . The first military use of a hot air balloon happened in 1794 during the battle of Fleurus , when the French used the balloon l'Entreprenant for observation . </P>
who is credited with inventing the hot air balloon
who is credited with inventing the hot air balloon
Joseph - Michel and Jacques - Étienne Montgolfier
Joseph - Michel and Jacques - Étienne Montgolfier