September 1958 Vol I Num 1

Few early balloonists' flights attracted more attention than the one that carried Mrs. Letitia Ann Sage aloft from London in 1785 as the first Englishwoman to brave the skies.  Our cover painting, The Three Favorite Aerial Travellers, done that same year by J. F. Rigaud, presents the scene - with one major inaccuracy.  As shown here, Mrs. Sage's companions were Mr. George Biggin, a fellow passenger also on his first flight, and, resplendent in the uniform of the Honourable Artillery Company, the Italian aeronaut Lunardi, already famous as the first man to make an ascent in England.  At the last moment before take-off, though, pilot Lunardi found that the balloon would not lift all three together and so stayed behind and let his passengers soar away on their own.  They landed an hour later in a field at Harrow.  An article on ballooning begins on page 114.  The picture is reproduced courtesy of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.