First untethered crewed balloon flight

The first untethered flight by humans was carried out in Paris, France, by scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and military officer François Laurent d'Arlandes (both FRA) on 21 November 1783. The two men took off from the grounds of the Chateau La Muette (on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissment of the present-day city) and flew south-east for around 25 minutes, crossing the Seine and covering around 7.3 km (4.5 mi) before touching down on the Butte-aux-Cailles (today a neighbourhood of Paris near the Place d'Italie in the 13th arrondissement).

The Montgolfier brothers had designed and flown their first uncrewed prototype balloon in the summer of 1783, attracting the attention of France's scientific and political elites. They relocated to Paris a few months later, and carried out a series of test flights, refining their design and validating various ideas. An untethered flight from Versailles in September carried the first living creatures (a sheep, duck and rooster), while a series of tethered flights in October demonstrated that a human pilot could exercise a certain degree of control over a balloon in flight.

With these test flights completed, the stage was set for the first untethered crewed flight. The King of France, Louis XVI had been closely following the news of the Montgolfiers' experiments, and offered the grounds of one of his palaces, the Chateau la Muette, as the launch point.

The first attempt at a crewed free flight was made on 20 November 1783, but strong winds badly damaged the balloon while it was still being filled. A team of volunteer seamstresses were able to repair the torn balloon, however, and by the afternoon of the following day it was ready to fly again. The two pilots – de Rozier and d'Arlandes – climbed into the narrow walkway that wrapped around the neck of the balloon, and at 1:54 p.m. the balloon lifted off.

The climb was initially quite slow, reportedly because d'Arlandes was so struck by the sight of the massed crowds in the streets below that he forgot to keep stoking the brazier. After being reminded of his job by de Rozier ("if you keep staring at the river you'll be bathing in it soon"), both men stoked the fires and the balloon climbed into a current of air that bore them south east across the Seine.

The balloon followed a meandering route over the city as it rose and fell through various air currents on a blustery autumn morning. Initially it was borne north east, following the river towards the western edge of Paris. It was then blown south across the river (crossing a little north of where the Eiffel Tower is now), passing between the Invalides and the École Militaire before turning directly east and gliding over Montparnasse and the Le Jardin du Luxembourg. From there the balloon was carried more or less directly south east out beyond the city walls.

A few years later, d'Arlandes would write a detailed and surprisingly candid account of this flight, which was marked for him by a mixture of wonder and terror. Unable to see each other, de Rozier and d'Arlandes spent the trip shouting at the top of their lungs, and frantically piling fuel into the brazier to keep the basket clear of the rooftops below. The creaking and snapping sounds from the paper-and-silk balloon – which was rapidly disintegrating under the strain – terrified d'Arlandes, and he was continually screaming for de Rozier to let them land.

Although he and de Rozier were the first people to ever look down on the world from above, they did not dare give the view more than the occasional quick glance. They were mostly concerned with stoking the brazier and putting out the numerous small fires that were being lit by burning embers on the paper balloon.

The two men came down in a field between two of the windmills – likely the Moulin de la Fortune and the Moulin de Livry – on a ridge called the Butte-aux-Cailles, overlooking the Bievre River. The balloon tore open on impact, burying de Rozier under a mountain of paper. Soon after landing, a group led by the Duc de Chartres arrived on horseback and helped them pack up the balloon.