The brothers who "invented" flight were not the Wright Brothers. They were Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michel Montgolfier, both members of the famed Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris. Always fascinated by flight, Joseph had an epiphany one evening watching smoke rise from a fire and immediately fashioned a model hot air balloon. Based on the model, the brothers built a functioning full sized balloon which, after several experiments, they demonstrated before King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, with a sheep, rooster and duck on board. Upon seeing the demonstration the king declared the Montgolfier family to be royalty. Their invention carried the first human in free flight on November 21, 1783.
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