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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.
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