The sky was clear, not a breath of wind, and the whole world was as silent as an oil painting.
On the training field of the Paris Army Officer Academy, Joseph and dozens of officers tilted their heads, staring at a small grey dot hovering in midair.
Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier was eagerly introducing, "Your Highness, later we discovered that silk was not only expensive, but its airtightness wasn't so great either.
"After repeated experiments, we finally decided to bond paper and silk together to make the envelope, and the results were quite good.
"Now the hot air balloon is extremely tough, and its weight has dropped by 35% compared to before."
Yes, floating in the sky right now was a hot air balloon— and not just any balloon, but a military variant, improved through several iterations.
As early as ten years ago, the Montgolfier brothers from southern France invented the world's first hot air balloon, and demonstrated it at the Palace of Versailles.
