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
Jean-Pierre Blanchard as Sophie Blanchard) in 1804. On 20 February 1808 Blanchard had a heart attack while in his balloon at the Hague. He fell from his balloon and died roughly a year later (7 March 1809) from his severe injuries. His widow continued to support herself with ballooning demonstrations until it also killed her. Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre [François] Blanchard (4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight. Blanchard made his first successful balloon flight in Paris on 2 March 1784, in a hydrogen gas balloon launched from the Champ de