Jean Pierre François
Blanchard was born in Les Andelys, France, on 4th July, 1753. He
became interested in science and invented a variety of devices such
as a velocipede. Later a hydraulic pump system that raised water
400 feet (122 meters) from the Seine River to the Château
Gaillard.
In the 1770s, Blanchard
worked on designing heavier-than-air flying machines, including
one based on a theory of rowing in the air currents with oars and
a tiller.
Blanchard was inspired
by the success of Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques Etienne
Montgolfier, in constructing an air balloon. In 1783 the Montgolfier
brothers managed to persuade Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis
d'Arlandes to became the first people to take part in a manned balloon
flight. In November, 1783, the two men travelled 7 miles (12.1 km)
in less than half an hour at the height of 3,000 feet (915 m).
Blanchard constructed
his own balloon and it took its first flight on 2nd March, 1784.
On 7th January, 1785, Blanchard and the American doctor, John Jeffries,
became the first people to cross the English Channel by air balloon
when they travelled from Dover to Calais.
In 1785 Blanchard carried
out the first successful parachute experiment. He placed a small
animal in a small basket attached to a parachute. This was then
dropped from a air balloon and the descent was so slow that the
animal survived the fall.
On January 9, 1793, Blanchard
made the first ever balloon ascent in North America. He carried
a letter from President George Washington from Pennsylvania to New
Jersey and therefore created the idea of air mail. Blanchard also
made the first balloon flights in Germany, Belgium, Poland, and
the Netherlands.
In February 1808, Blanchard
suffered a heart attack on a flight over The Hague in the Netherlands
and fell more than 50 feet. He never recovered from the fall and
died on March 7, 1809.
