First Manned Gas Balloon Flight by Jacques Charles

240 years ago, French aeronauts raced to be the first to fly in an untethered balloon. On November 21, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier got there first with a hot-air balloon. 11 days later, on December 1, Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles proved that this was much easier with a large enough hydrogen balloon. He and Nicolas-Louis Robert traveled 20 miles and landed. Then, Robert got out and Charles rose frighteningly fast to an altitude of 9,800 feet. Charles safely landed but never flew again.

To me, gas balloons have a better feeling of floating than hot-air balloons. Hot-air balloons float when they burn fuel to heat the air inside, which is smoky and noisy. Gas balloons float by simply existing in air heavier than itself. There are mechanics to vent some gas or unload ballast, but gas balloons require no action to stay aloft, silently drifting like the wind itself. There are trade-offs, like having to fill your balloon with either flammable hydrogen or valuable helium. Also, in the 1700s, the chemical reactions required to get a lot of hydrogen were dangerous.

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240 years ago, French aeronauts raced to be the first to fly in an untethered balloon. On November 21, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier got there first with a hot-air balloon. 11 days later, on December 1, Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles proved that this was much easier with a large enough hydrogen balloon. He and Nicolas-Louis Robert traveled 20 miles and landed. Then, Robert got out and Charles rose frighteningly fast to an altitude of 9,800 feet. Charles safely landed but never flew again.
To me, gas balloons have a better feeling of floating than hot-air balloons. Hot-air balloons float when they burn fuel to heat the air inside, which is smoky and noisy. Gas balloons float by simply existing in air heavier than itself. There are mechanics to vent some gas or unload ballast, but gas balloons require no action to stay aloft, silently drifting like the wind itself. There are trade-offs, like having to fill your balloon with either flammable hydrogen or valuable helium. Also, in the 1700s, the chemical reactions required to get a lot of hydrogen were dangerous.