History of transport balloons filled with hot air were used in the first half of the 19th century and saw considerable action in several mid-century wars, most notably the American Civil War, where balloons provided observation during the Siege of Petersburg. Apart from some scattered reference in ancient and medieval records, resting on slender evidence and in need of interpretation, the earliest clearly verifiable human flight took place in Paris in 1783, when Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes went in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The Wright brothers made the first sustained, controlled and powered heavier-than-air
The Great Reno Balloon Race the 100 or so other balloons follow the leaders as the “hounds.” Modeled after the traditional English sport of freeing a rabbit, giving it a head-start, then releasing a pack of canines to hunt it down, the ballooning competition is less dire for the hare. The E.L. Cord Tissue Paper Hot Air Balloon Launch The Great Reno Balloon Race Tissue Paper Balloon Launch, a Washoe County School District and Balloon Race tradition since 1999, is a sight to see. On Thursday and Friday of the Balloon Race, over 1000 students release their colorful, hand-made, model hot air balloons off Bunsen