Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) were paper manufacturers from Annonay, in Ardèche, France best known as inventors of the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique.
 They launched the first piloted ascent, carrying Étienne.
 Joseph Michel also invented the self-acting hydraulic ram (1796), Jacques Étienne founded the first paper making vocational school and the brothers invented a process to manufacture transparent paper.
The Colorado Balloon Classic is a hot air balloon festival in Colorado Springs.
 Held each Labor Day weekend since 1977, it takes place near Prospect Lake in Memorial Park.
 It is the "largest and the longest continuously running hot air balloon festival in the Rocky Mountain region as well as the State of Colorado."
Bill Bussey is a dentist in Longview, Texas, an avid hot air balloon pilot and official world record holder in balloon flights.
 He is the founder of The Great Texas Balloon Race and the first person to organize a "Balloon Glow" at a public event (1980 Great Texas Balloon Race) - balloon glows are now a part of hot air balloon festivals and events around the world.
The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is an annual event that occurs between January and February in Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City, Pampanga.
 It features multicolored hot air balloons with more than a hundred balloon pilots from around the world.
 This four-day hot air balloon event is the biggest and longest-running aviation sports event in the Philippines.
Victor Zagainov (May 31, 1953 - October 5, 2002) was a hot air balloon pilot and astronomer from Kazakhstan.
 He was the first and only hot air balloon champion of the USSR (1991), Hot Air Balloon champion of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1993), the winner of the International Balloon Grand Prix Todi (Italy) (1993), the champion of the CIS (1996).
 He organized Grand Prix of Zagainov and was awarded Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Diploma for Outstanding Airmanship (Award ID# 5349) and the FAI Air Sport Medal (Award ID# 5244) in 2003.
‘’’Professor Zeno’’’ ((1875--) 01, 1875 – (1901--) 26, 1901 ) was an early Aeronaut at the turn of the 20th century known for his performance of suspending from a trapeze below a parachute attached to Hot Air Balloon and cutting loose from a balloon floating back to Earth while hanging from the trapeze beneath the parachute.
 He also performed the balloon cannon act in which he was shot from a cannon suspended from a hot air balloon and floating back to Earth under a parachute.
Kyaw Yin (Burmese: ကျော်ရင် 1873 - 1939), also known as Mee-Bone-Pyan U Kyaw Yin, was a Burmese balloonist who flew a hot air balloon to many places in Burma.
 He flew his personally designed hot air balloon ("Mee-Bone-Pyan" in Burmese) in acrobatic fashion as a stuntman.
 He tried extensively to get a license from the British Government for flying hot air balloons (at that time, Burma was under British colonial rule).
A hopper balloon (simply hopper) is a small, one-person hot air balloon.
 Unlike a conventional hot air balloon where people ride inside a basket, there is no basket on a hopper balloon.
 Instead, the hopper pilot usually sits on a seat or wears a harness similar to a parachute harness.
 Hoppers are typically flown for recreation.
 These aircraft are sometimes called "Cloud Hoppers" or "Cloudhoppers."
 However, these terms formally refer to the products of a particular manufacturer, specifically Lindstrand Balloons.
 Nonetheless, "Cloudhopper" is used by many people as a genericized trademark, which refers to all craft of this general type.
 Most hopper balloons have envelopes that range in volume from 14000 to and have a maximum flight duration of 1 to 1.5 hours.
 The two principal commercial balloon manufacturers today offering hopper balloons for sale are Cameron Balloons and Lindstrand Balloons.
 Most other hopper balloons are experimental aircraft designed and built by amateur constructors.
Kryakutnoy (Russian: Крякутной ) or Furtzel (Russian: Фурцель ) was a fictional early 18th-century Russian inventor, who allegedly invented the hot air balloon fifty years before the Montgolfier brothers.
A solar balloon is a balloon that gains buoyancy when the air inside is heated by solar radiation, usually with the help of black or dark balloon material.
 The heated air inside the solar balloon expands and has lower density than the surrounding air.
 As such, a solar balloon is similar to a hot air balloon.
 Usage of solar balloons is predominantly in the toy market, although it has been proposed that they be used in the investigation of planet Mars, and some solar balloons are large enough for human flight.
 A vent at the top can be opened to release hot air for descent and deflation.

Question: Kryakutnoy allegedly invented the hot air balloon fifty years before a pair of brothers from what country?
Answer: France