Along with France, England, Italy and the Netherlands, Poland was one of the first countries where people became interested in aeronautics. On February 12, 1784, the first balloon flight took place in Warsaw. It was carried out by Stanislaw Okraszewski - court chemist and royal mineralogist. The bullet was small - less than a meter in diameter. The shell was filled with hydrogen. She climbed up about 180 meters and was in the air for about three minutes, tied with a rope. It was then moved to a high hall, where the action continued for about an hour in the presence of King Stanislaus Augustus and numerous spectators.
Okraszewski conducted the next experiment with a balloon on the banks of the Vistula. The king watched the event from the castle windows. After the volleys from the cannons, the bullet rose twice in tethered mode, and the third time in free flight it moved in the direction of Kobylce. Twenty-five minutes later, she disappeared from view and landed, as it turned out, near Slupno, more than 20 kilometers from the starting point. On March 10, a balloon was spotted by a peasant, Wojciech Lasota from Grodzisk. Although he was scared, he still decided to take her home. After learning from the card attached to the ball about the reward promised for its return to its owner, the peasant went to Warsaw and returned from there with the money.
Around the same time, Bach, Korn, and Giedelski were conducting balloon experiments in Warsaw. They launched a small balloon for the first time on February 24 from the courtyard of the palace on Medova Street, and for the second time on March 3 from the Krakow suburbs. The second balloon was found 3 days later in Kolombrodskaya Pushcha, about 20 kilometers from the launch site.
Considerable attention was paid to the experiments of aeronautics adherents. The king was very interested in balloons and often spoke about it, adding splendor to the experiments and financially supporting their conduct. Okrashevsky's merits in this field, he even won a gold medal.
And the first balloon flight with a crew in Poland took place in 1789, when French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard visited Warsaw.