International flight 1785, when Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a hot air balloon. It took more than a century for the first heavier-than-air object to repeat this process: Louis Blériot crossed the English Channel on July 25, 1909, winning a "Daily Mail" prize of £1,000. Aviation technology developed during World War I, with aviation between the World Wars seeing the development of international commercial flights. There was a combination of aircraft types which included airships and airplanes. The first airline to operate international flights was Chalk's Ocean Airways, established 1917, which operated scheduled seaplane services from Florida
Hot Air Balloon (rock opera) Hot Air Balloon (rock opera) Hot Air Balloon is a rock opera written in 1998 by Jon Gutwillig, guitarist and founding member of The Disco Biscuits, a Philadelphia based trance fusion jam band. Hot Air Balloon was first performed on December 31, 1998 at the Silk City Lounge in Philadelphia. The debut was unannounced and fans attending the show were given a pamphlet containing accompanying stories for each of the songs. The opera has been performed in its entirety eight times. It was also performed on April 1, 2002, but with "Aquatic Ape" replacing the title song, "Hot Air Balloon",