François Laurent d'Arlandes (; 1742 – 1 May 1809) was a French
marquis, soldier and a pioneer of
hot air ballooning. He and
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier made the first manned free balloon flight on 21 November 1783, in a
Montgolfier balloon.
D'Arlandes was born in
Anneyron in the
Dauphiné. He met
Joseph Montgolfier at the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
college of
Tournon. He became an infantry officer in the French royal guard.
The first public demonstration of a balloon by the
Montgolfier brothers
The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (; 26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (; 6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the Communes o ...
took place in June 1783, and was followed by an untethered flight of a sheep, a cockerel and a duck from the front courtyard of the
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
on 19 September. The French King
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
decided that the first manned flight would contain two condemned criminals, but de Rozier enlisted the help of the
Duchess de Polignac to support his view that the honour of becoming first balloonists should belong to someone of higher status, and d'Arlandes agreed to accompany him. The King was persuaded to permit d'Arlandes and de Rozier to become the first pilots.
After several tethered tests to gain some experience of controlling the balloon, de Rozier and d'Arlandes made their first untethered flight in a Montgolfier hot air balloon on 21 November 1783, taking off at 1:54 p.m. from the garden of the
Château de la Muette in the
Bois de Boulogne, in the presence of the King. Also watching was U.S. envoy, Benjamin Franklin. Their 25-minute flight travelled slowly about 5½ miles (some 9 km) to the southeast, attaining an altitude of 3,000 feet, before returning to the ground at the
Butte-aux-Cailles, then on the outskirts of Paris. After the flight, the pilots drank
champagne to celebrate the flight, a tradition carried on by balloonists to this day.
D'Arlandes proposed a flight to cross the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
in 1784, but the plan came to nothing.
He was dismissed from the army for cowardice after the
French Revolution, and died in his castle of Saleton near
Anneyron. Some sources suggest that he committed suicide.
See also
*
List of firsts in aviation
References
External links
www.ballooninghistory.com
1742 births
1809 deaths
French balloonists
Flight altitude record holders
Balloon flight record holders
French aviation record holders
History of ballooning
{{France-engineer-stub