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
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century (spoken as "twenty-fourth-and-a-half") is a 1952 Merrie Melodies color cartoon from Warner Bros., first released on July 25, 1953, that stars Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent. This cartoon marked the first of many appearances of the Duck Dodgers character. Marvin the Martian had been introduced as an unnamed villain in Warner's cartoon "Haredevil Hare" (1948), playing opposite Bugs Bunny. He was later given the title 'Commander, Flying Saucer X-2' in 1951's "The Hasty Hare".