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The early works of the Montgolfier brothers and air trips of Pilatre de Rosier were quite innovative for their time, but it seems it was considered as little more than a fanciful hobby for the nobility, with no actual potential for much else.

One of the reasons it may not have taken off (huhu) at the time is the highly hazardous nature of the flights, as is testified by the crash and death of Pilatre de Rosier while attempting to cross the Channel in 1785.

But what if he had succeeded to cross the Channel, and then went on to more successful (and daring) trips? Could the potential of hot air/early gas balloons been perceived for a wide variety of domains early on(science and military would probably be the most funky ones) ? And what would be the consequences of that, in France at first, and then spreading.

Let it be clear that I'm not advocating the dirigibles/zeppelin bonanza that can often come across in some steampunk alternate TL, rather a slightly more sustained development of hot air/gas balloons in late 18th, early 19th century.
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