35 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2022 Media Guide The first gathering to watch a flying machine began in France in 1783, in part to satisfy the curiosity of the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne. The two enterprising paper manufacturers entertained the King and Queen of Versailles, along with a crowd of 40,000 people, by sending aloft a smoke-filled balloon carrying as passengers a duck, a rooster and a lamb. The first human passengers (Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes) were carried aloft some 3,000 feet in the first manned, untethered balloon flight ever recorded on November 21, 1783. Two weeks later, a Frenchman, J.A.C. Charles and his friend, Monsieur Robert, launched a hydrogen gas balloon near Paris for a two-hour, 27-mile flight. One year later, the first hot air balloon ascent in the United States occurred when a 13-year-old boy, Edward Warren, ascended over Baltimore in a tethered hot air paper balloon. All through the 19th century, American ballooning featured two different types of aerostats. For lengthy flights, hydrogen or “mixed gas” was preferred. For rapid, briefer ascents, smoke-filled balloons proved to be more viable. During the Civil War, balloons were used for spotting and reconnaissance and occasionally were used to carry the U.S. mail and aerial photography. In 1859, John Wise (with three passengers) inflated his gas balloon “Atlantic” in St. Louis and flew eastward in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean. After an 800-mile adventure, a severe storm forced him to land in Henderson, New York. For the next 100 years, very little progress was seen in the world of ballooning. A few would-be aeronauts performed tethered ascensions at state fairs around the country. One such ascension occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1882. Saloon keeper P.A. Van Tassel owned and operated a balloon called the “City of Albuquerque.” It was highly touted as an attraction for the 4th of July celebration on the Territorial Fairgrounds. After numerous delays to his much talked about “lift off,” Van Tassel’s craft finally reached an altitude of 14,207 feet and flew over the Rio Grande River before it came to rest in a cornfield near the Fairgrounds. There were other similar adventures, but nothing of real historical significance until 1906. At that time, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., publisher and owner of the New York Herald, organized the Gordon Bennett Cup Race. The first trophy was won by an American aeronaut, Frank P. Lahm, and his co-pilot Henry Hersey, who flew their balloon 395 miles from Paris to Whitby, England. In 1907, a Chicagoan, Joseph A. Blondin, came to Albuquerque, and attempted to inflate a 25,000 cubic foot balloon envelope of rubberized silk. His “mixed- gas” three-hour flight was fraught with problems, as was another attempted ascension by Blondin in 1909. BALLOONING HISTORY [CONTINUED]