The hot air balloon is the first technology that successfully enabled man to fly.

The first untethered manned hot air balloon flight was performed by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes on November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, in a balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers. The first hot air balloon flown in the Americas was launched from the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia on January 9, 1793, by the French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard.

For years, I wanted to create a hot air balloon for DCS World. Facing complex issues representing spatial orientations and rotations of elements in three dimensional space, it was a unique project to attempt.

With a proof of concept in place; new models, textures, animations, and detailed flight model code were created, resulting in the first full fidelity hot air balloon for DCS World.