On November 21, 1783, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes took the world’s first hot air balloon ride. They ascended about 152 meters (500 feet) and travelled 25 minutes, from central Paris to the suburbs, 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) away.
Hot air balloons were the first opportunity for people to get a bird’s-eye view of the landscape. In 1858, aerial photographs taken from a hot air balloon were used to help plan and map the city of Paris. Hot air balloons were used to assess the damage of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Aerial photography is still used in mapmaking, land-use planning, and archaeology.