Premodern and unmanned balloons History of ballooning

a kongming lantern, oldest type of hot air balloon.

unmanned hot air balloons popular in chinese history. zhuge liang of shu han kingdom, in 3 kingdoms era (c. ad 220-280) used airborne lanterns military signaling. these lanterns known kongming lanterns (孔明灯).

it has been demonstrated manned hot air balloons can built using ancient materials. while there no direct documentary or archaeological evidence manned or unmanned flights prior discussed below occurred using these methods, ege notes indirect report of evidence chinese solved problem of aerial navigation using balloons, hundreds of years before 18th century. mongolian army studied kongming lanterns china , used them in battle of legnica during mongol invasion of poland. first time ballooning known in western world.

the first documented balloon flight in europe brazilian-portuguese priest bartolomeu de gusmão. on august 8, 1709, in lisbon, bartolomeu de gusmão managed lift small balloon made of paper full of hot air 4 meters in front of king john v , portuguese court. according portuguese speaking community, earliest recorded model balloon flight .