Balloonomania their ballooning stunts, with Blanchard and his companion Dr. John Jeffries being the first to cross the English channel in a balloon on January 7, 1785. The public reaction among intellectuals and academics was generally cooler, with some critics of balloonomania including the likes of Sir Joseph Banks and Samuel Johnson, who wrote in a 1783 letter to Hester Thrale, who had inquired about the nature of hot air balloons, “Happy are you, Madam, that have ease and leisure to want intelligence of air balloons. Their existence is, I believe, indubitable, but I know not that they can possibly be
Hot air ballooning Lewis. The song "Get It Up" from the 1983 New England release Walking Wild is about hot air ballooning. The song "Let Everything Go" by Phil Keaggy (1981) is about hot air ballooning. In "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), the wizard leaves the Emerald City in a gas balloon, not a hot air balloon. In "Around the World in Eighty Days" a gas balloon, not a hot air balloon, (featured on the movie poster) is used to cross the Pyrenees. In "Enduring Love" (2004), a hot air balloon is involved in a tragic accident during the opening scene. In "The