The Balloon-Hoax

"The Balloon-Hoax" is the title used in collections and anthologies of a newspaper article written by Edgar Allan Poe. This tale appeared in the New York Sun in 1844 and claimed a group of men successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a new type of balloon. Although the story looked real, it was completely fiction and created entirely from Poe's imagination. The story caused such excitement that a huge crowd gathered in front of the New York Sun office, all trying to buy copies of the newspaper. Keep in mind that no one flew anything on the Atlantic for another 75 years. Earl Ferdinand von Zeppelin built the first zeppelin dirigible in 1900. The Wright brothers made their first successful flight in 1903. British airmen Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop flight in the Atlantic Ocean in 1919. Dr. Hugo Eckener First transatlantic flight Flight in a zeppelin, in 1924. Charles Lindbergh made his famous solo flight in 1927. The first non-human, balloon-carrying globe to actually cross the Atlantic Ocean was "Double Eagle II" in 1978. The globe Reached an altitude of about 25,000 feet, as Poe described. The trip took 6 days.