At least landings were possible at the end of all these early flights, as they had taken place over dry land. One man who set out to change all this was a ferociously ambitious Frenchman named Jean-Pierre Blanchard. He had invented a crude bicycle in 1769, but then tried to extend his talents to producing a pedal-powered flying machine. Refusing to let facts interfere with a good story, he claimed to have flown at a height of 80 feet, and at an amazing speed of 75 m.p.h. Blanchard also claimed to have invented a parachute, and to have made two successful jumps, but there is little doubt these two claims were as false as the flying machine.
What Blanchard did was make his first flight in a hydrogen balloon from the Champ de Mars in Paris on 2 March 1784. He also flew from Rouen, and from Bordeaux, but the French ballooning scene was now so crowded, there was little chance of winning the fame he sought so desperately. In August 1784 he moved to the more promising surroundings of London, where a man with his own balloon could find many wealthy patrons willing to pay handsomely for the chance of a flight.
Blanchard's most spectacular exploit was an attempt to cross the English Channel to his native France, sponsored by Dr John Jeffries, an American with a practice in London. They took off on the morning of 7 January 1785. Although they dropped all their ballast overboard by the time the French coast was but a few miles away, the balloon never climbed to a safe altitude, and it seemed they would come down in the sea. Frantically, the two men began jettisoning everything they could.
First to go were the extravagant gondola decorations, followed by Blanchard's steering gear.
Then followed the anchors, the two men's coats, and then their trousers. The remedy worked when they were skimming the waves, and the balloon climbed higher than ever before, to cross the French coast and finally deposit its passengers safely on earth 12 miles inland, in the Forest of Felmores, dressed only in their underwear. It was a splendid achievement. Blanchard was given a prize by Louis XVI and a life pension, but Jeffries had to be content with the glory alone.
Blanchard used his new-found means to set up a ballooning school in London. After one flight, he claimed to have returned precisely to his starting point, to prove his skill at balloon flying. In fact the balloon had landed some way away, and had been towed back to the start by two horsemen. He made other equally untrue claims, and in the end a disappointed crowd wrecked the school.