this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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[โ€“] [email protected] 45 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

The first hot air balloons were those sky lanterns which were used in China as military signals. It took 1500 years for some bored French guys to say "yeah, let's make that but big enough to carry us".

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Admittedly the Chinese weren't lacking in ambition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Hu