Editing Hot air balloon (section)

===Premodern and unmanned balloons===
[[File:SkyLanternRichy01.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A [[sky lantern]]]]

A precursor of the hot air balloon was the [[sky lantern]] ({{zh|s=孔明灯|t=孔明燈}}). [[Zhuge Liang]] of the [[Shu Han]] kingdom, during the [[Three Kingdoms]] era (220–280&nbsp;CE), used these airborne lanterns for military signaling.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ssO_19TRQ9AC&q=Kongming+balloon&pg=PA112 |title=Ancient Chinese Inventions |last=Deng |first=Yinke |location=Beijing |publisher=China Intercontinental Press |year=2005|isbn=978-7508508375 }}, cited in Joel Serrão, ''Dicionário de História de Portugal'', Vol III. Porto: Livraria Figueirinhas, 1981, 184–185.</ref> The Mongolian army studied [[Kongming lantern]]s from China and used them in the [[Battle of Legnica]] during the Mongol invasion of Poland in the 13th century.<ref>Joseph Needham (1965). ''Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering''; rpr. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.</ref> This is the first time ballooning was known in the western world.

In the 18th century the Portuguese Jesuit priest [[Bartolomeu de Gusmão]] in colonial Brazil envisioned an aerial apparatus named {{lang|pt|Passarola}}, which was the predecessor of the hot air balloon. The {{lang|pt|Passarola}} was intended to serve as air vessel in order to facilitate communication and as a strategical device.<ref>Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. "Cartas Consultas e Mais Obras de Alexandre de Gusmão" (páginas do manuscrito 201–209).</ref> In 1709 [[John V of Portugal]] decided to fund Bartolomeu de Gusmão's project following a petition made by the Jesuit priest,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://purl.pt/706 |title=Reproduction fac-similé d'un dessin à la plume de sa description et de la pétition adressée au Jean V. (de Portugal) en langue latine et en écriture contemporaine (1709) retrouvés récemment dans les archives du Vatican du célèbre aéronef de Bartholomeu Lourenco de Gusmão "l'homme volant" portugais, né au Brésil (1685–1724) précurseur des navigateurs aériens et premier inventeur des aérostats. 1917 |last=De Gusmão |first=Bartolomeu}}</ref> and an unmanned demonstration was performed at [[Casa da Índia]] in the presence of John&nbsp;V and the queen, [[Maria Anna of Austria]], with the Italian cardinal [[Pope Innocent XIII|Michelangelo Conti]], two members of the Portuguese Royal Academy of History, one Portuguese diplomat and one chronicler serving as witnesses. This event would bring some European attention to this event and this project. A later article dated on October 20, 1786, by the London ''Daily Universal Register'' would state that the inventor was able to raise himself by the use of his prototype. Also in 1709, the Portuguese Jesuit wrote {{lang|pt|Manifesto summário para os que ignoram poderse navegar pelo elemento do ar}} (''Short Manifesto for those who are unaware that is possible to sail through the element air''); he also left designs for a manned air vessel.

In the 1970s, balloonist [[Julian Nott (balloonist)|Julian Nott]] hypothesized that the [[Nazca Lines]] [[geoglyph]]s' creation two millennia ago could have been guided by [[Nazca culture|Nazca leaders]] in a balloon, possibly the earliest hot air balloon flights in human history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nott.com/Pages/projects.php |title=Innovative Projects; The Extraordinary Nazca Prehistoric Balloon|access-date=2017-07-24|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714201319/http://www.nott.com/Pages/projects.php |archive-date=2011-07-14 }}</ref> To support this theory, in 1975 he designed and piloted the Nazca Prehistoric Balloon, claiming to have used only methods and materials available to the Pre-Inca Peruvians 1,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ltaflightmagazine.com/julian-nott-bizarre-accident |title=Scientist and Aviator Julian Nott Dies After a Bizarre Accident |work=LTA-Flight Magazine| date=29 March 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Browne |first1=Malcolm W. |title=Ballonist Has High Hopes But No Illusions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/18/science/balloonist-has-high-hopes-but-no-illusions.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=18 November 1986 |access-date=21 June 2020}}</ref>