History of the Hot Air Balloon Patent

In 1783, Pilatre De Rozier, a French scientist, launched the first hot air balloon in the presence of the Royal Academy and King Louis XVI. King Louis XVI suggested that the balloon carry a sheep, a duck, and a rooster as passengers and 15 minutes after setting off, the animals landed safely 10,000 feet from their starting point.

Two months later, two French brothers completed the first manned flight from Paris to the outskirts of the city. 

In 1773, Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first person to fly a hot air balloon in North America, in the presence of President George Washington. Almost a century later, they were used in the Civil War. During the civil war, the north used 10 hot air balloons that flew over 3000 times. 

In the 1950s, the modern hot air balloon was invented through the General Mills balloon program, funded by the US government. They believed that hot air balloons could be a formidable extraction method for soldiers or surveillance system over Communist China, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union.

In 1923, Ralph Upson of Birmingham, Michigan was granted a patent for a hot air balloon design. His construction design increased flight altitude and stability while reducing the counter weight supply needed to take flight. This patent expired in 1942, but Upson went on to file 35 other patents throughout his life.

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