The First Balloons and Airships: Flying Before Airplanes   

• Long before airplanes filled the skies, people dreamed about flying. Inventors experimented with balloons and airships, which became the first machines to lift humans into the air. The story began in 1783 in France, when brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier launched the world’s first hot-air balloon. Made of paper and cloth, it carried a sheep, a duck, and a rooster to test whether living creatures could survive in the air. Later that year, the brothers sent up the first human passengers, drawing cheering crowds as people floated above Paris for the first time. Soon after, inventors created hydrogen balloons, which could travel even farther. In the mid-1800s, the dream of controlled flight led to the invention of airships, also known as dirigibles. These were large balloons with engines and steering systems. The most famous, the Zeppelin, first flew in 1900 in Germany, as a glamorous form of luxury travel. Though airplanes later replaced them, balloons and airships marked humanity’s first real steps into the sky, proving that imagination could truly take flight. Nancy Ahmed Dagba For The Junior Times junior/1764139498/1613367831