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Delving into the past, one story at a time — exploring historical people, places, and events that shaped our world.

World War I Caquot kite balloon in flight, showing stabilizing lobes and tether lines used for aerial reconnaissance and artillery observation.

Balloons Of War Part V Twilight Over The Trenches

High above the mud, wire, and shattered earth of the Western Front, tethered observation balloons swayed in the wind. To soldiers below, these elongated hydrogen-filled shapes—often likened to sausages—were a

James Glaisher and Henry Tracey Coxwell in the basket of a tethered balloon with scientific instruments, 1864.

Balloons Of War, Part III: Britain’s Reluctant Ascent

By the middle of the nineteenth century, military ballooning had already proven itself on several continents. French aeronauts had watched enemy movements from above during the Revolutionary Wars. Union balloonists

Illustration of a tethered observation balloon above the Paraguayan fortress of Humaitá during the Paraguayan War.

Balloons Of War, Part II: Eyes In The South American Sky

When the Union Army Balloon Corps quietly folded in 1863, military ballooning didn’t disappear. It migrated. Within a few years, two veteran American aeronauts—James and Ezra Allen—had carried their experience

Civil War soldiers using portable gas generators to inflate Professor Thaddeus Lowe’s military observation balloon near Gaines Mill, Virginia.

Balloons Of War, Part I: The Birth (and Near-Miss) of Aerial Reconnaissance

In early 2023, a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon drifted into U.S. airspace. The balloon spent days crossing the continent before an F-22 shot it down off South Carolina. U.S. officials

Above the Trenches: WWI and the Revolution in Aerial Reconnaissance

World War I is defined by its horrific mechanized violence that slaughtered millions of soldiers. The desperate necessities of that brutal war served as a catalyst for rapid technological development,

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