Montgolfier’s Legacy in Ballooning Honors Record-Setting Pilot

On the anniversary of the brothers’ first test flight, we talk with NAA award-winning balloon pilot Kim Magee.

Julie Boatman

Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 04:32 PM ET

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Kim Magee obtained three world and six national records in the AX-02 balloon. Courtesy: Kim Magee

Key Takeaways:

The Montgolfier brothers conducted their first human hot-air balloon flight in 1783, a milestone commemorated by Montgolfier Day and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's Montgolfier Diploma.
Kim Magee, a 2021 Montgolfier Diploma recipient, holds numerous world and national ballooning records, noting that larger balloons aid in setting higher/longer flight records and can simultaneously break records across multiple categories.
The hot-air ballooning community, while seeing advancements in competitions, is concerned about a proposed FAA rule requiring a second-class medical for commercial pilots, which is a significant change for the small sport.

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On December 14, 1782, the Montgolfier brothers—Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne—set out on their first serious flight test of the lighter-than-air conveyance they had developed while researching and experimenting with the process in the department of Ardèche, France.

The two brothers had built a wooden box, measuring roughly 9 ft by 9 ft by 12 ft and covered in taffeta-like cloth—based on a previous design of Joseph’s—and set it aloft by burning wool and hay under the bottom of the box. But they promptly lost control of it, according to C.C. Gillispie, in The Montgolfier brothers and the invention of aviation 1783-1784. It drifted nearly a mile and a quarter away—a failure.