Episode 1 of 3
Royal permission for the first pilots
- When
- 1783
- Where
- French royal court
Louis XVI first assigned two condemned criminals to the flight, but was persuaded to let de Rozier and d'Arlandes become the first pilots.
King Louis XVI initially decided that the first manned flight would contain two condemned criminals. De Rozier enlisted the help of the Duchess de Polignac to support his view that the honour of becoming first balloonists should belong to someone of higher status, and the Marquis d'Arlandes agreed to accompany him. The king was persuaded to permit d'Arlandes and de Rozier to become the first pilots.
Sources
- François Laurent d'Arlandes Wikipedia, revision of 2025-10-16
- Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-04
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.