The Right to Fly

A book passionately defending balloon flight for human beings, celebrating the 175th anniversary of The London Library.

The first balloon flight with passengers (a sheep, a duck, and a rooster) took place on 19th September 1783. On 4th October 1863, Nadar's giant balloon "Le Géant" had its first ascent; the second (and nearly fatal) was two weeks later.

A curiosity both for its content on theories of flight and its author, an important pioneer of French photography and skilled sel…