Balloons, airships, rockets and fireworks

SUMMARYBalloons, airships, rockets and fireworks (agent report, Nov 7, 2026; Tito: "We need to go over airships, air balloons, crafts, fireworks etc"; receipt: receipts/2026-11-07_procesion-civica-1821.jpg). Dataset sky_flight_fire.csv (51 rows); report agent-reports/sky-flight-fire.md. BALLOONS, Record: Bartolomeu de Gusmão, born in Santos, Brazil (1685), flew a small model hot-air balloon before King João V in Lisbon in August 1709 (the day is given as both 5 and 8 Aug), reported to the Vatican by the nuncio Conti, later Pope Innocent XIII: a man born in the Americas flew hot air 74 years before the Montgolfiers (1783), and France got the credit ("claimed by"). The crewed "Passarola" flight is Disputed (its only source is a London paper of 1786, after the Montgolfiers). Nazca: the Condor I flight (Nov 28, 1975, Woodman and Nott) is Record and shows a balloon of local-type materials can fly; ancient Nazca flight is Open (no balloon cloth, burn pit or rigging found; the "balloon pot" has no museum number). In the Americas: Xalapa, May 18, 1784 (Alfaro; whether people rode in it is Disputed), Veracruz 1785, Venezuela 1785, Philadelphia, Jan 9, 1793 (Blanchard), Havana 1828/1831, Lima 1840; Ayiti in 1784 is Open (lead: McClellan, Colonialism and Science). Black aeronauts: "colored aeronauts" were fairly common in circus ballooning from the 1870s (Wittmann; Pattern), names Open. AIRSHIPS: the Great Airship wave began in Sacramento, Nov 17, 1896 (newspapers, Record); the Aurora, Texas crash is Disputed (probable hoax); the named builders recanted or denied. JOHN F. PICKERING, US patent 643,975 (Feb 20, 1900), Record: the patent lists him as a "British subject" living in GONAÏVES, AYITI, the city where Dessalines declared independence in 1804; it gives no race. Widely listed as African American; that, and "tested before the Wrights," are Open. CHARLES F. PAGE, a Black inventor of Pineville, Louisiana, US patent 817,442 (Apr 10, 1906), Record; his family says he flew it and lost it at the 1904 fair (Disputed: no newspaper report of a flight found). Dellschau's notebooks (1899–1922) are Record; the 1850s "Sonora Aero Club" is Disputed (no members in census, voting or death records). ROCKETS, Record: Tipu Sultan's and Hyder Ali's iron-cased Mysore rockets (1780–1799), captured by the British; Congreve's rocket (1804) was "inspired by" them, a "claimed by" case (over 1,000 dug from a Karnataka fort well in 2018). Congreve rockets were fired at Lewes, Bladensburg, Stonington, Fort McHenry ("the rockets' red glare," 1814) and New Orleans (1813–15), at Callao (1819) and in the Paraguayan War. THE IMAGE, Record with notes: Pancho Fierro, the Afro-Peruvian painter, "Sigue la procesión cívica de 1821," showing an Afro-Peruvian procession; Fierro was about 12–14 in 1821, so it was likely painted later (Disputed); the catalogue doesn't mention the rockets (Open); a related Fierro work shows an Indigenous man carrying rockets to the highlands. THE LAND'S SKY CEREMONIES, Record: the New Fire torch relay (Florentine Codex); the Voladores, the Totonac "flyers" (UNESCO 2009); the Kaqchikel giant kites of Sumpango flown Nov 1 to join the living and the dead; Tultepec gunpowder since colonial times and fireworks for about 150 years

OPENBlack fireworks makers in the US; any fireworks at the July 28, 1821 Lima proclamation; Taíno and Maya flight stories (the sky-stories agent).