Le Guide Impossibili
5550 Etèria
ovvero gioie e dolori di viaggiatori aerostatici
Edited by Gianni Guadalupi. Texta by Cavaliere d’Arlande, signor Charles, Pasquale Andreoli, Gaston Tissandier, Auguste Piccard, Società Svedese di Antropologia e Geografia
1992 / 232 PAGES.
Language: Two editions: Italian, French
From the early leaps and jolts of the montgolfiers over the Parisian rooftops to the exploration of the mysteries of the stratosphere: the hazardous pleasures of travelling by hot-air balloon.
Bold and ill-fate balloonists, reckless and bizarre flyers, visionary physicists and engineers… this volume tells of the plans, travels, feats, misadventures and clumsy attempts of these “tourists of the air”. From the wonder and enthusiasm aroused in Europe by the first human flight in history, we move on to ill-fated attempts to pair a hot-air balloon and a hydrogen balloon, and then to the unfortunate event of the balloon that tried, unsuccessfully, to cross the Arctic ice pack, causing the death of the three men on board. The journals of the members of the expedition were recovered following the accidents, and excerpts drawn from them make up this volume’s section on flight.