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KF5JRV > TODAY 07.01.24 18:04l 19 Lines 1205 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 15756_KF5JRV
Read: DJ6UX GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 07
Path: DB0FHN<OE2XZR<OE6XPE<DB0ERF<DK0WUE<DK0WUE<N2NOV<KA1VSC<VE3CGR<KF5JRV
Sent: 240107/1100Z 15756@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.23
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon, bec
oming the first to cross the English Channel by air. The two men nearly crashed into the Channel along the way, however, as the
ir balloon was weighed down by extraneous supplies such as anchors, a nonfunctional hand-operated propeller, and silk-covered o
ars with which they hoped they could row their way through the air. Just before reaching the French coast, the two balloonists
were forced to throw nearly everything out of the balloon, and Blanchard even threw his trousers over the side in a desperate,
but apparently successful, attempt to lighten the ship.
Fourteen months earlier, French inventor Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and French army officer Francois Laurent had made the
first manned hot air balloon flight when they flew over Paris for approximately 25 minutes. In June 1785, Rozier was among thos
e racing to become the first balloonist to cross the English Channel, but he and his co-pilot were killed when their balloon ca
ught fire during an attempted crossing.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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