Today we celebrate a very brave pig, duck and rooster!
The three creatures took the world's very first hot-air balloon ride on this date in 1783. They all did just fine, health-wise, although many thought they would run out of oxygen going so high in the sky!
We probably should also credit the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne, since they were the ones who built up to this experiment with smaller balloons, they were the ones who created the huge globe-shaped balloon out of sackcloth and paper, and they were the ones who plunked the farm animals into the hot air balloon's basket!
It is hard to believe that the heavy (500 pounds, or 225 kg) balloon, with its 1,800 buttons and a fish net of cord, actually rose more than 6,000 feet (2,000 m) into the air and stayed aloft for 10 minutes! Nowadays hot-air balloons are made of rip-stop nylon or polyester treated with coatings to withstand ultraviolet light. They are usually made of 1200 to 1500 square yards of fabric, 2,500 feet of tape, and 6-8 miles (miles!) of thread. Modern balloons generally weigh between 200 and 350 pounds—a lot lighter than the Montgolfiers' balloon. But the basket and fuel tanks add another 400 or so pounds, and that first balloon did not have fuel tanks.
(Surprisingly enough, the pig, duck and rooster just stood around and tolerated the flight; they did not steer or reheat the air!)
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