It hosted the world’s first hot air balloon flight
Long before the Wright Brothers left terra firma, the Palace of Versailles had been the stage of the first-ever ‘flight’. On a warm September day in 1783, two Frenchmen, also brothers, succeeded in launching a hot air balloon in the grounds of the royal residence, with King Louis XVI himself there to watch history being made.
Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier had started experimenting with balloons in 1782. Before long, they were hosting demonstrations in their home town of Ardeche. The Royal Academy of Sciences soon heard of their work and invited the brothers to conduct an experiment in Paris. They agreed and so, on 19 September 1783, they assembled their huge fabric balloon just outside the palace doors. After two private trial runs, they were ready for their royal audience. As well as the king, hundreds of people, including some of Europe’s most eminent scientists watched on. At the last minute, however, it was decided that some farmyard animals should be the to test out the hot air balloon and so a sheep, a duck and a cockerel were ushered into the balloon’s wicker basket.
At precisely 1.11pm, the hot air balloon took off. It climbed to a height of around 600 metres, much to the amazement of the onlooking crowd, the king included. The fabric then started to disintegrate and the balloon slowly returned to earth, landing around two miles from the palace. A court physician gave the animals a check-up and was astonished to find their flight had not affected them at all. To reward their feat, the King granted all of the animals accommodation in the royal menagerie. Within two months of the inaugural hot air balloon flight at Versailles, a human passenger had taken to the skies and then France had several pioneering ‘aeronauts’, including that doctor who feared leaving the earth could harm animals.