November 25, 2017 | 2 Comments As pioneers of aviation go, Jean-Pierre Blanchard may not be the first name that springs to mind, but it was certainly not for the want of trying. Born in Les Andelys, France in 1753, Blanchard was both an inventor and a shameless self publicist. Early in his career he had designed and constructed a variation on the velocipede; a forerunner of the bicycle, but without pedals. As a further development to his design, he added not only the much needed pedals, but also flapping wings and oars. Yes, the intrepid Monsieur Blanchard had invented a flying bicycle! An Example of a Velocipede Needless to say, it didn’t work. Undeterred, however, he claimed to have made several successful flights aboard his invention, although none, of course, were witnessed, and no one believed him. However, his attention was soon drawn to a method of flying that really did work. Following the success of the Montgolfier brothers experiments with hot air balloons; Etienne Montgolfier being the first person to be lifted clear of the earth in 1783, Blanchard was hot on their heels, so to speak. By March of 1784, he had built a hydrogen balloon, and eager to improve on the Montgolfiers’ efforts, fitted it out with his trademark flapping wings, air screws and oars. Persistent and single minded was the audacious Blanchard. Eager for publicity and keen to improve his financial situation, Blanchard decided to move his operations to England; virgin territory for ballooning, and well away from the overbearing shadow of the Montgolfiers. In London, he began taking fare paying passengers for rides in his balloon. Not everyone was pleased with his efforts though. A Dr Sheldon hired him and his aerial contraption, to take weather measuring instruments, including a barometer, up into the atmosphere, in order to conduct some serious scientific experiments. To the doctor’s consternation however, Blanchard, realising that he was losing height, elected to jettison the expensive but heavy equipment, in order to gain altitude. The conversation between doctor and balloonist, upon Blanchard’s return to earth, was sadly not recorded! Dr John Jeffries, a wealthy physician, on the other hand, was far more impressed with Blanchard’s ballooning skills than his meteorological counterpart. After enjoying a balloon flight with our hero, Jeffries got talking to Blanchard, and they decided upon an attempt to be the first people in history to fly across the English Channel. With Jeffries money behind the scheme and Blanchard’s ballooning brilliance, what could possibly go wrong? Well, Blanchard for one thing! Jean-Pierre Blanchard After a three week wait for favourable winds, perfect weather conditions finally arrived on 7th January 1785. The party duly assembled at Dover Castle in England, and excitement grew along with the balloon, as it began to inflate. Blanchard, however, had his own agenda. He didn’t want to be just one of the first people to cross the Channel by air, he wanted to be the first person to cross the Channel by means other than water. His first ruse was to barricade himself in a room at Dover Castle, and refuse to come out. His strategy, such that it was, seems to have been based on the assumption that Jeffries would soon tire of waiting, and simply leave. He didn’t! Blanchard was eventually coaxed out of his self imposed confinement, following the intervention of the castle’s governor. Undeterred, he moved on to plan B. With the balloon refusing to lift off, Blanchard claimed that it was because the combined weight of the two men was too much, and that in the circumstances, he had no choice but to undertake the dangerous task alone. Jeffries, by now suspicious of Blanchard’s motives, frisked the balloonist, and discovered him to have a pouch-belt filled with lead shot, concealed about his waist. Alleviated of this additional weight, the balloon, with both men aboard, began to rise. Heading out over the Channel, however, things did not go quite as planned. It transpired that the balloon really was carrying too much weight, and the pair found themselves practically skimming the waves. Despite jettisoning all of the ballast weights, the balloon was still not gaining altitude, and so they also ditched the wooden decorations that adorned the gondola. Still dangerously low, Blanchard finally conceded, and threw out his beloved, but useless, oars and air screws. Approaching the French coast, it became apparent to Blanchard that they were still not high enough, and were in real danger of crashing. In what must have been a very careful manoeuvre, both men evacuated their bowels and bladders into the sea, before also throwing their clothes overboard. Mercifully, that did the trick, and the balloon was just able to clear a clump of trees that had been threatening disaster, and land safely on French soil. Dressed only in their underwear, the unlikely looking and chilly heroes had taken around two and a half hours to complete the crossing, and in so doing write their names into the record books. Blanchard and Jeffries Head Out Over the Water Despite achieving international fame, the cross-channel adventure seems to have marked the end of Dr Jeffries career as a balloonist, as shortly thereafter he resumed his medical practice, which he continued until his death in 1819. Blanchard, on the other hand, was quick to exploit his new found notoriety, and he embarked on a European tour with his balloon. He subsequently became the first person to fly in a balloon in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, and on 9th January 1793 he took off from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the first ever balloon flight in the Americas. Later in his career, Blanchard began experimenting with parachutes, initially by dropping cats and dogs from his balloon. Even assuming they floated harmlessly to earth, the poor creatures would presumably have found the experience terrifying! He was later able to try one out for himself, when his balloon canopy ruptured during a flight. As you might imagine, his eventual demise was also balloon related. On 20th February 1808, at the Hague, in the Netherlands, Blanchard was in the process of launching his balloon, when he suffered a heart attack and fell from the gondola, from a height of approximately 50 feet. He subsequently succumbed to his injuries at the age of 55. A braggart and shameless self publicist without doubt, the world nevertheless needs people like Jean-Pierre Blanchard. I hope you agree! https://lflank.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/blanchards-cross-channel-balloon-flight/#more-1391d https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Blanchard https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Pierre-Francois-Blanchard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers