The first real aircraft heavier than air rose up only at the end of the XVIII century, a little over two hundred years ago. In the summer of 1783, the brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier invented a method of lifting an inflatable balloon using warm air. The idea of the brothers was supported by Zh. Charles, who guessed to soak the silk shell of the ball with varnish, which allowed it to be filled with hydrogen. In September 1783, for the first time in the air were raised living creatures: a ram, a duck and a rooster - just like in our time before the launch of the first people into space!.. And already on November 21, in the basket (gondola) of the balloon, two people took to the air, flying 8 kilometers downwind over Paris. Louis XVI highly appreciated the invention of his countrymen: he awarded the Montgolfier brothers a noble title with the inscription on the coat of arms: "Sic itur ad astral" (So go to the stars!). A new era in human history has begun. Aero stats Officially, the first balloon aircraft (there were no others for about 100 years!) were given the Latin name machina aerostati-ca (a device standing [hanging] in the air) or simply - balloon (in French. The first public demonstration of balloons in St. Petersburg took place in the same year 1783, and in Moscow (not very successfully) - on Shrovetide 1784. The first Russian balloon with scientific purposes was raised in the summer of 1804. Academician Y. D. Zakharov supervised the ascent. From the French language to Russian during the last decade of the XVIII century, the words aerostat, aerostatics (and aerostatic), aerostate actively entered? (the" pilot " of the balloon). Aerostatics was then called the occupation of making and launching balloons (A magazine of various subjects of literature. 1805. Book 3). The second basis is stat (from the Greek statos - standing) turned out to be page 105 quite productive, and at different times several new words were created according to this scheme: vertostat ... Read more