Jun 17 1984
From The Space Library
Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch giant balloons float overhead in honor of the first American to build a full-scale hot-air balloon and fly the tethered balloon June 16, 1784, 70 feet over a field in Bladensburg, Md. Peter Carnes had been a Bladensburg innkeeper, lawyer, and adventurer and had built the hot-air balloon, the first of its kind in this country. Carnes had had no interest or knowledge of ballooning until he read newspaper accounts of the first flights in France in 1783. Having never seen a balloon, Carnes fashioned his 35 feet in diameter based on sketchy newspaper stories.
One week after his unmanned balloon flight, Carnes took his balloon to Baltimore, where 13-year-old Edward Warren volunteered to ride in the tethered craft, making him the first American to ascend in a hot-air balloon.
Shortly thereafter, at the Philadelphia Commons, spectators watched 234-pound Carnes ascended about 10 to 20 feet in the balloon, when a wind shift pushed him into a wall, breaking the chains and dropping him to the ground.
Tom Crouch, curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum, said that the balloon construction "was considered a great scientific achievement. It is difficult to realize what an achievement flying that balloon really was. His flight was a demonstration of the fact that while this nation was young, it was a nation with great hope for the future" (W Post, June 17/84, B-1; B Sun, June 25/84 D-1)
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