THE PRE-INCAS 100BC?
Some say there is a valid claim that the first person to fly a hot air
balloon may have been an ancient Inca above the plains of Nazca about
100BC based on the design of a pottery artefact in Lima and the mysterious
markings of the Nazca plain. A replica balloon "Condor 1" based
on this design and built using only available materials successfully flew
over Nazca in 1975.
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THE MEDIEVAL CHINESE
In the middle ages, the Chinese
celebrated festivals with small rice paper hot air balloons however there
is no record that anyone built anything large enough to lift a man or even
considered the possibility although man carrying kites were known
.
1670 EUROPE
Francisco
de Lana proposed an airship with
copper spheres containing a vacuum.
While theoretically correct there is no material then or now that is
strong enough to resist external atmospheric pressure yet light enough to
be lifted by the resulting difference in density. So De Lana had a good
idea, but it does not work. What was need was a gas to balance the
external atmospheric pressure but lighter than air.
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