Modern Ballooning

It would not be long before the barnstorming days of ballooning and parachuting would be replaced by the newly discovered method of flight called the airplane. It would be many years before competitive and sport ballooning would once again capture the imagination of the world. Ed Yost, a long time military balloonist, was experimenting with new types of hot air balloons which he thought would have military and scientific applications. In October, 1960, Yost, then President of Raven Industries, flew a prototype of the modern hot air balloon in a test flight in Nebraska. After some changes to the envelope and burner, Yost made another flight above the Stratobowl near Rapid City, South Dakota. Yost and Raven thought the military and intelligence industries would be their biggest customers but they were wrong. Raven sold its first sport balloon in 1961 and recreational ballooning took off.

On April 13, 1963, Ed Yost and Don Piccard, a descendent of the famous Piccard ballooning family, flew a Raven hot air balloon, dubbed Channel Champ across the English Channel in three hours and 17 minutes, the first balloon crossing of the channel since Blanchard 180 years earlier, and the first crossing by hot air balloon.