In 1782, brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier paper makers by trade, discovered that smoke from a fire directed into a silk bag made the bag buoyant.  On June 5th, 1783, in Annonay, France, they gave a public exhibition with a balloon made of silk and lined with paper.  This balloon rose to 1830 m, traveling over 1.6 km from its starting point and stayed aloft for 10 minutes.  After several other test flights including a tethered flight of a sheep, duck and rooster to determine the effect of altitude on living creatures, and a tethered ascension, the first manned free flight took place.  There was great excitement as over 440,000 people, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, attended the launch of Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois d'Arlandes on November 21, 1783.  These men had to constantly feed a fire with straw and sheep's wool while dousing the fires in their frail craft started by sparks.  Twenty-five minutes after take off, they softly came back to earth.  Back on the ground, d'Arlandes commented that "the silence surrounding us surprised me" a feeling which consumes balloonists today.  

During this time, hydrogen balloons were developed and soon overtook hot air popularity.  In the 1960s, the sport of hot air ballooning was revived.  Instead of being made of silk and paper and buoyancy created by live fire, modern-day balloons are made of tough synthetic fabrics and kept afloat by propane burners.

Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.,  Richard K. Smith