Military Ballooning

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In 1794, the French Committee of Public Safety developed a “Corp d’ Aerostiers” also known as a military balloon that was initially created to make it easier to scrutinize the enemy. Thaddeus Lowe then set out to invent a portable gas generating device that could be used anywhere. The first balloon was used in the battles of Charleroi and Fleurus in 1794. (Civil War Ballooning, 1987) The balloon was indeed a success for those battles until it became disbanded in 1798. (About.com, Napoleons Dream.) Before the balloon was disbanded, it did not move until later after the development became more of a popular topic between the Union and Confederate armies. In fact, military ballooning was so popular its own” Balloon Corps” army was developed. Even though military balloons were not shot down in a war, military ballooning was overall an unsuccessful development in military history. The communication of balloon intelligence to a commander engaged in battle was sometimes difficult and the corps faced difficult logistical problems that sometimes prevented it from moving as quickly as desired.
As the Union and Confederates were bound to fight, the Union gave orders to a professional aeronaut, named John Wise, to create a plan of attack towards the confederates and take action. This was a very unsuccessful request because the balloon escaped from its tethers and had to be shot down before the Confederates had seen the new and improved idea of the Union. Soon after that, Thaddeus Lowe had foreseen the creation of military ballooning and the advantages of the entire idea. By writing letters to the government and Abraham Lincoln, the Union explained the advantages of their ideas, such as putting electronic devices in the balloon as a way to e...

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...romote military ballooning anymore. With recognizing the advantages and disadvantages, it was proven that the period of military ballooning (1794-1863) was very unsuccessful.
Today, Americans do use aeronautical technology to fight in war such as planes and jets. Planes have been created to transport equipment back and forth from base to base and fighter jets were also created to fire missiles at the oncoming enemy. The technology in the jets gives the soldier the opportunity to see the movement of the enemy as well as have headsets to communicate with the base and the soldiers that are in other aircrafts. Military ballooning may have been an unsuccessful development in 1700-1800’s, but the lessons learned gave the American military today a drastic rise in freedom because of the aircrafts developed to fight and transport equipment overseas to other countries.

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