Modern balloons can be expensive. Richard Branson spent £3m on his, but ballooning pioneers of the past had to be very resourceful. The first balloonists are reported to have used old boots and bad meat as fuel.

The stink this "fuel" gave off was thought to increase levity. However it is not thought that the first passengers, a sheep, a duck and a chicken, minded the smell too much.

Chronology

1782 - Hot-air balloon experiments were first undertaken by Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier in France. The balloon of paper lined cloth was 33m in circumference and flew for 10 minutes a distance of 2.5 km. A sheep and a duck were the first balloon passengers.

1783 - First manned balloon flight - Pilatre de Rozier, Versailles, France. He died in 1785 attempting to cross the English Channel in a balloon.

1785 - The first balloon to cross the English Channel - French Balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries.

1795 - The first balloon flight in North America - Jean-Pierre Blanchard from Philadelphia to Gloucester County, New Jersey.

1900's - Balloons used for military purposes, often serving as bomb launches in World War I.

1903 - First heavier than air, airplane flight - Orville Wright, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1944 - Japanese prepare 10,000 balloon bombs to float over the United States. They launch 9,000 but only 285 were ever accounted for in the continenal US, Canada, Alaska and Mexico.

1960 - Edward Yost invents a propane burner that changes ballooning from gas power to hot air.

1973 - First ballooning world championships are held in the United States.

1978 - First transatlantic balloon flight - Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, Presque Isle, Maine to Miserey, France.

October 9-12, 1981 - First non-stop transcontinental balloon flight - Fred Gorell and John Shucraft.

November 9-12 1981 - First transpacific balloon flight - Newman, Abruzzo, Aoki and Clark, Nagashima, Japan to Covello, California.

September 15-18, 1984 - First solo transatlantic balloon flight - Joseph W. Kittinger, Caribou, Maine to Cairo Montenotte, Italy.

December 14-23, 1986 - First nonstop unrefueled global airplane flight - Voyager, Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager, Edwards Air Force Base, California.