In 1709, the Brazilian-Portuguese Jesuit priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão made a hot air balloon, the Passarola, ascend to the skies, before an astonished Portuguese court. It would have been on August 8, 1709, when Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão held, in the courtyard of the Casa da Índia, in the city of Lisbon, the first Passarola demonstration. The balloon caught fire without leaving the ground, but, in a second demonstration, it rose to 95 meters in height. It was a small balloon of thick brown paper, filled with hot air, produced by the "fire of material contained in a clay bowl embedded in the base of a waxed wooden tray". The event was witnessed by King John V of Portugal and the future Pope Innocent XIII.
In 1709 the Brazilian-Portuguese Jesuit priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão made a hot air balloon the Passarola ascend to the skies before an astonished Portuguese court It would have been on August 8 1709 when Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão held in the courtyard of the Casa da Índia in the city of Lisbon the first Passarola demonstration The balloon caught fire without leaving the ground but in a second demonstration it rose to 95 meters in height It was a small balloon of thick brown paper filled with hot air produced by the "fire of material contained in a clay bowl embedded in the base of a waxed wooden tray" The event was witnessed by King John V of Portugal and the future Pope Innocent XIII