born Aug. 26, 1740, Annonay, France
died June 26, 1810, Balaruc-les-Bains
born Jan. 6, 1745, Annonay, France
died Aug. 2, 1799, enroute from Lyon to Annonay
French designers of the hot-air balloon .
The brothers discovered that heated air collected in a lightweight bag would cause the bag to rise. In 1783 they demonstrated their discovery with a balloon that rose 3,000 ft (1,000 m) and remained aloft 10 minutes. Later that year they sent a sheep, a duck, and a rooster up as passengers, and they followed that experiment with the first manned untethered balloon flight.