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Although the use of a spy balloon in 2023 was considered startlingly primitive, these lighter-than-a feather sacks caused an entire ‘balloonomania’ when they first began being introduced in eighteenth century France. Pilots risked their lives to prove their creations could be used for flight, with Jean-Pierre Blanchard even throwing away his trousers and jacket to keep his balloon afloat as he and his friend crossed the English Channel airborne. Yet, it wasn’t long before these marvellous spectacles, once wondrous spheres of colour in the sky, would be given additional roles. Ones as innovative tools for destruction, terror and intelligence gathering. Well… occasionally, of course.
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Credit:
Show Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script: Jake Leigh-Howarth
Narrator:
Bryan 'Lazlo' Beauregard

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