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Prompted by Trump's claim that the Continental Army captured all the British airports. Planes certainly didn't exist in 1783...but balloons did.
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What would have happened if French scientists invent the balloon 25 years earlier, in 1758? Maybe Montgolfier's parents get involved with the invention. At the very least, they can get interested in 1775 when one of the brothers thinks about inventing a parachute.

The French and Indian War is going on in 1758. The pressures of wartime encourage the French to deploy the balloons in the field as observation platforms. The British naturally notice this, capture a few balloons, and reverse-engineer the design. The Indians presumably figure out how to do this too.

By the time the war ends in 1764, the French, English, and Native Americans have experienced pilots and rudimentary airfields. This comes in handy in later years such as (say) 1776, 1789, and 1812...

Is this plausible? Can the balloons be lifted high enough to get out of range of firearms and host a marksman or observation platform?

Note that parachutes could come a few years earlier.
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