Secrets of World War II TV - The Office US TV - Ronald Top TV - Michael Mosley TV - Benjamin Franklin - Broadway Danny Rose 1984 - GPO: The First Days TV - Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV - Invasion! with Sam Willis TV -
A rocket-powered missile guided to its target by human hands. Japanese suicide aircraft – the Kamikazis – were among the most terrifying weapons of the Pacific war … Balloons loaded with bombs which rode the jet stream across the Pacific … The Japanese balloon bombers were perhaps the strangest secret weapon of the Second World War. Secrets of World War II e18: Japan’s Last Secret Weapon, 1998
Jim: Dwight, this fits in the palm of my hand. You haven't blown them up enough. Why have you chosen brown and grey balloons?
Dwight: They match the carpet. The Office US s5e16: Lecture Circuit I, NBC 2008
In a hot air balloon invented by a pair of dabbling amateurs ... it was paper that first inspired the French brothers’ interest in flight. Ronald Top, More Industrial Revelations s4e7: Europe – High Fliers, Discovery 2006
A few months after the Montgolfiers’ first flight the Paris Academy launched a hydrogen balloon. ibid.
The first balloon made of paper soared a mile into the heavens. The race was now on to carry a man into the skies. And in November 1783 two brave volunteers took to the air. The first humans to look down at the surface of their own planet. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Proof & Passion, BBC 2010
Lavoisier’s success encouraged Napoleon to create a military balloon corps: powered by hydrogen gas. ibid.
Some guns were fired to give notice that the departure of the balloon was near ... Means were used, I am told, to prevent the great balloon’s rising so high as might endanger its bursting. Several bags of sand were taken on board before the cord that held it down was cut, and the whole weight being then too much to be lifted, such a quantity was discharged as would permit its rising slowly. Thus it would sooner arrive at that region where it would be in equilibrio with the surrounding air, and by discharging more sand afterwards, it might go higher if desired. Between one and two o’clock, all eyes were gratified with seeing it rise majestically from above the trees, and ascend gradually above the buildings, a most beautiful spectacle. When it was about two hundred feet high, the brave adventurers held out and waved a little white pennant, on both sides of their car, to salute the spectators, who returned loud claps of applause. The wind was very little, so that the object though moving to the northward, continued long in view; and it was a great while before the admiring people began to disperse. The persons embarked were Mr Charles, professor of experimental philosophy, and a zealous promoter of that science; and one of the Messrs Robert, the very ingenious constructors of the machine. Benjamin Franklin
I think you’re going to become one of the great balloon folding acts of all time. Broadway Danny Rose 1984 starring Woody Allen & Mia Farrow & Nick Apollo Forte & Sandy Baron & Corbett Monica & Jackie Gayle & Morty Gunty & Will Jordan & Howard Storm & Gloria Parker et al, director Woody Allen
Protective balloons are sent up. GPO: The First Days, Sky Arts 2014
Also available is a lifesize model frog which croaks the words ‘Golden Age of Ballooning’ … Monty Python’s Flying Circus s4e1: The Golden Age of Ballooning, BBC 1974
And even one planned invasion by balloon. Invasion! with Sam Willis III, BBC 2017
After abandoning the balloon plan, Napoleon focused on sea warfare with Britain. ibid.