Father of the Hot Air Balloon: Iowa Time Machine June 30, 1919

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On June 30, 1919, Paul Edward Yost, “Father of the Modern Day Hot-Air Balloon,” was born on a farm 7 miles south of Bristow, Iowa, in Butler County. An enthusiasm for reviving manned hot-air ballooning during the 1950s led Yost to fly the prototype of a modern hot-air balloon featuring a plastic film envelope heated by kerosene.

After his childhood in Iowa, Yost enrolled at the Boeing School of Aeronautics and graduated in 1940. His career began as a civilian Army employee, focusing on balloon technology. During the war, he worked on a scheme to drop propaganda leaflets into enemy territory using a large balloon and dry ice.

In the post-war years, Yost headed to Alaska to work as a bush pilot before signing on with a research division at General Mills, conducting research for the United States Navy. When the Navy contract ended, Yost partnered with three of his colleagues to form Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The firm focused on securing ballooning-related military contracts.

By the end of his career, Yost had held 26 distinct patents related to ballooning, including equipment, inflation, body structures, and gondola designs. Building on a rich history of human ballooning dating back to a Parisian flight in November 1783, swapping combustible hydrogen for propane earned Yost the title of “The Father of the Modern Hot-Air Balloon.” #Iowa #History #OTD #HotAirBalloon #Innovation