Anyone who's ever watched the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (or seen the Broadway musical Wicked) will recall the wacky way the wizard first arrived into Oz: by hot air balloon. Just like the wizard's, hot air balloons consist of a basket attached to a giant balloon (called an envelope). Envelopes come in many different colors and shapes, though they're usually made out of nylon. At the bottom of the envelope, a device called a burner produces a flame which heats the air inside, lifting the basket more than 1,000 feet off the ground. Pilots fly the balloon by manipulating the heat to ride wind currents.
The French scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier launched the first hot air balloon and its passengers (a sheep, duck, and rooster) on September 19th, 1783. Today, balloon flights are most often used to supply passengers with the delight of flying through the air while witnessing breathtaking scenery below. In competitive balloon flights, pilots earn points by dropping a weighted marker as close as they can to a target on the ground. Finally, unmanned balloons are used in scientific research and data collection, such as weather balloons used to predict weather patterns.