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Men first took to the skies in balloons
fashioned out of cloth and powered by hot air in
the late 1700s. Two Frenchmen manned the
balloon, which was filled with hot air from
burning wool and straw, and floated for eight
kilometers over Paris. A hot air balloon has a
bag which is made of a durable material
and filled with heated air or a light gas. This
air or gas is lighter than the surrounding
atmospheric air, so the balloon will rise and
float in the air. The hot air balloon generally
depends on prevailing winds to steer it towards
a certain course and man can only exert a
limited amount of control over it. In the
distant past, it was the only means of air
transport, but its instability made it
unreliable as an air-transport vehicle.
Furthermore, it could only carry a limited
number of passengers.
In 1852, a French engineer, Henry Giffard,
built and piloted the first powered and manned
airship. It evolved from the hot air balloon but
it had most of the equipment for steering and
was powered by engines attached to the craft.
This lighter-than-air aircraft had a huge main
body with gas bags that contained a gas that was
lighter than air. Hydrogen was initially used to
fill the gas bag but it was highly flammable and
resulted in a number of airship disasters. One
such tragic example was the explosion of a
German airship, the 'Hindenburg', which marked
the end of the use of airships to transport
passengers.
Since the Wright brothers built their first
airplane in 1903, man has not looked back. Now,
we have modern airplanes that can carry more
than a hundred passengers at one time and fly
over large expanses of land and sea. Air travel
has become so much cheaper and more efficient
that it is now the preferred mode of travel for
most people when they travel or want to save
time.
Today, nobody travels in an airship any
longer though there are groups of balloon
enthusiasts who take part in various
competitions around the world. Their flights
of fancy add colors to the sky as they take
off in balloons of various shapes, patterns and
colors. |
