Images of the Past

Sioux Falls and the Birth of the Modern Hot Air Balloon

Season 4 Episode 2 | 7m 1s | Video has closed captioning.

Although the history of balloons and ballooning is a long one, the story of the development of the modern hot air balloon is a relatively recent one. In the late 1950s, a team of engineers and mechanics working at Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota conceptualized, designed, built and successfully flew a hot air balloon very much like those in use today.