Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard (1753-1809). French balloonist, one of the pioneers of balloon aviation in the nineteenth century and who helped to lay

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Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard (1753-1809). French balloonist, one of the pioneers of balloon aviation in the nineteenth century and who helped to lay the foundations of aeronautics. He explored the limits and possibilites of aerial travel by balloon and expermented with parachutes and methods of propulsion. In 1784 he made the first ascent in a hydrogen balloon months after the first-ever manned flight which used a Montgolfier hot-air balloon. The next year Blanchard and the US surgeon John Jeffries made the first crossing of the English channel from Dover to Calais. In 1793, in the presence of President George Washington, he conducted the first balloon flight in the Americas.

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