Rising up to the challenge

There’s something about balloons that fascinates almost all of humankind. Collaborating with the Robert brothers – Nicolas and Anne-Jean – Charles built the first hydrogen balloon. On August 27, 1783 – 83 days after Montgolfiers’ demonstration – Charles launched the first hydrogen-filled balloon from the Champ de Mars in Paris, the present-day site of the Eiffel Tower. Along with the younger of the Robert brothers, Nicolas, Charles made the first free flight aboard a hydrogen balloon. Process of filling gas In addition to being the first hydrogen balloon flight with passengers, this was also one of the first flights to provide meteorological measurements of the atmosphere above the Earth’s surface.