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 Great Race" (1965 Comedy), the opening sequence features a hot air balloon competition between The Great Leslie and Professor Fate. "Five Weeks in a Balloon", published in 1863, was Jules Verne first acclaimed novel which made him famous and propelled his career as a novelist. The heroes travel across Africa from Zanzibar to Saint-Louis in a gas balloon, not a hot air balloon. In "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (1962) by Ray Bradbury, a hot air balloon with the Dust Witch is sent to find out and mark the location of the boys' homes. In Phillip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark