Hot air ballooning is very quiet- except when the propane burners are firing. The gentleness of floating, and the bird's-eye view. Since the balloon moves with the wind, the passengers feel hardly

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Hot air ballooning is very quiet- except when the propane burners are firing. The gentleness of floating, and the bird's-eye view. Since the balloon moves with the wind, the passengers feel hardly any movement, except for brief periods during the flight when the balloon climbs or descends into air currents of different direction or speed. Why not spice up your holiday this year with a balloon ride and enjoy the countryside from a bird's eye view.

The first clearly recorded instance of a balloon carrying passengers using hot air to generate buoyancy was built by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France. After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first tethered balloon flight with humans on board took place on October 19, 1783 with the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, the manufacture manager, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Giroud de Villette, at the Folie Titon in Paris. The first free flight with human passengers was on November 21, 1783. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier, along with Marquis Francois d'Arlandes, successfully petitioned for the honor.