AHC: Napoleonic Invasion of Britain using balloons

Yes, I know that there are quite a few threads on a hypothetical Napoleonic invasion of Britain around at this point, but reading them has got me thinking about something.

The idea that Napoleon planned to use hot-air balloons to travel across the Channel has become something of an Alt-History Meme at this point - there was no way that the Grande Armee, in the circumstances present between 1803 and 1805, could have crossed the Channel in hot-air balloons. I think we can all agree on that.

But how could that be changed?

That is the point of this thread - you must, using any POD you feel necessary, have Napoleon decide that, if they cannot conquer the sea, then the French must conquer the sky.

What would it take? Perhaps an earlier development of the hot-air balloon (so as to make larger models available by the time of the Napoleonic Wars which would be more suited to military use)?

Note that I am not asking you to have the Grande Armee cross the Channel in hot-air balloons and succeed - simply that they try to do so.
 
I can sort of imagine Napoleonic "balloon-bomb" type things - a bunch of explosives taped to a hot air balloon with a six-hour fuse that's sent across the channel to blow up in some random place in England. I can almost imagine some French Commander deploying whole flotillas of them - they're useful propaganda weapon if nothing else.

From there I guess it's a "logical" step to a balloon invasion if some higher-up sees it and decides to ask if one could be made big enough to fit troops in.
 
It seems that even with on-board burners and lightweight nylon fabric modern balloons can only stay up in the for about one hour (assuming a ride with passengers), so even during test flights they will notice that they simply don't have the range to cross the channel, especially not if they want to bring troops over (and those would only have light equipment, so forget about field artillery or cavalry)
 
Yes, I know that there are quite a few threads on a hypothetical Napoleonic invasion of Britain around at this point, but reading them has got me thinking about something.

The idea that Napoleon planned to use hot-air balloons to travel across the Channel has become something of an Alt-History Meme at this point - there was no way that the Grande Armee, in the circumstances present between 1803 and 1805, could have crossed the Channel in hot-air balloons. I think we can all agree on that.

But how could that be changed?

That is the point of this thread - you must, using any POD you feel necessary, have Napoleon decide that, if they cannot conquer the sea, then the French must conquer the sky.

What would it take? Perhaps an earlier development of the hot-air balloon (so as to make larger models available by the time of the Napoleonic Wars which would be more suited to military use)?

Note that I am not asking you to have the Grande Armee cross the Channel in hot-air balloons and succeed - simply that they try to do so.

The French Revolutionnary Army did use hydrogen blimps, not hot air balloons. Problem is you need a special hearth and 2/3 days to inflate a small (2/3 crew) blimp, wich stay inflated only a couple of weeks. In order to send 10,000 men over the Channel, you need thousands of hydrogen hearthes, tons of sulfur acid, and a strong and stable wind. Quite difficult to obtain.

I have another proposal. Instead of trying to use the blimps as transportation mean, why not use them as weapons ? Conté, the colonel in charge of the Air Corps, lost an eye in an hydrogen accident, so he knew first-hand these things burn. A couple of hundreds blimps with a keg of powder and a long fuse among the Home Fleet... Except half a dozen lucky shots, it would not do real damage, but it could scare the British Admirals and allow the invasion fleet to pass.
 
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