Montgolfier brothers Montgolfier brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) were paper manufacturers from Annonay, in Ardèche, France best known as inventors of the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique. They launched the first piloted ascent, carrying Étienne. Joseph Michel also invented the self-acting hydraulic ram (1796), Jacques Étienne founded the first paper-making vocational school and the brothers invented a process to manufacture transparent paper. The Montgolfier brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne were born into a family of paper manufacturers founded in 1534 in Annonay, in Ardèche, France. Their parents
2016 Lockhart hot air balloon crash owner died in the accident, announced that it would be suspending operations. More than two years later on September 27, 2018, the House of Representatives approved new legislation that would mandate medical exams for commercial balloon pilots. 2016 Lockhart hot air balloon crash On July 30, 2016, sixteen people were killed when the hot air balloon they were riding in struck power lines, crashed and caught fire in the unincorporated community of Maxwell, near Lockhart, Texas, south of the state capital Austin. It is the deadliest ballooning disaster to ever occur in the United States. The aircraft involved was a