![]() However, it was expensive to and time consuming to inflate a gas balloon so flying was not something just anyone could afford. Gas balloons continued to be the primary mode of air travel until the invention of the fixed wing aircraft by the Wright brothers in America in 1903. Unlike hot air balloons, gas balloons did not depend upon fire to get them aloft and stay up and therefore they were able to stay up longer and their altitude could be controlled somewhat easier with the use of ballasts. The balloon shown at left is the Royal Vauxhall Balloon typical of gas balloons which were flown in the 1830’s and 1840’s. Gas balloons soon became the preferred mode of air travel. The gas used in the balloon was hydrogen, a lighter than air gas that had been developed by an Englishman, Henry Cavendish in 1776, by using a combination of sulphuric acid and iron filings. The flight lasted 2½ hours and covered a distance of 25 miles. This flight too started in Paris, France. On December 1, 1783, just ten days after the first hot air balloon ride, the first gas balloon was launched by physicist Jacques Alexander Charles and Nicholas Louis Robert. Legend says when they landed in the farming and vineyard area near Paris the pilots gave bottles of champagne to the startled farmers and peasants to calm their fears of demons appearing from the heavens, but that cannot be confirmed. The balloon reached an altitude of at least 500 feet and traveled about 5½ miles before landing safely 25 minutes later. They hand-fed the fire through openings on either side of the balloon’s skirt. They stood on a circular platform attached to the bottom of the balloon. The balloon carried two men, Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of Arlanders. Horizon 1’s barn finds were cars like a Plymouth Hemi Cuda, or a Jaguar D Type, or a Mercedes Benz 300SL.On Novemthe first free flight carrying a human occurred in Paris, France in a hot air balloon made of paper and silk made by the Montgolfier brothers. Even the barn finds seemed cooler, and even though they were cars that were already in the Second, the barn finds in the second game felt so unfitting and unnecessary. Then there was bonkers stupid cars that felt ridiculously cool, like the Gumpert Apollo Enraged, the Shelby 1000, countless track Ferrari’s like the FXX, 599XX, 599XX Evoluzione, F40 Competitzione, F50C R, all sorts of wonderous machines. And this was on Corvette’s, Ferrari’s, Alfa Romeo’s, all sorts of amazing cars. There was not much more fun that cruising down winding valley roads with the huge sky above you, a V10 exhaust note blaring in your ears and, key part, no roof. And you know which one I drove more? The convertible. Pictured above is a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Spyder Performante (I know, big Italian words). But, and it is a very big but, I absolutely adore the car list in Horizon 1. the 1969 Camaro hard top) and felt more fitting. Forza Horizon 2 had a bigger car list, and it featured the more popular cars that people had wanted (e.g. Now I have to be careful with my choice of words here. Dirt tracks for the rally drivers (and Horizon 1 also featured its very own Rally Expansion, that was longer and felt more fun than a lot of rally games at the time), long, wide highways for the speed demons, quarter-mile straights for the drag freaks, city spaces for the urban street racers and, obviously, the huge hills for drifting about. The whole map had more variety, and felt cooler and more fun. I have some of my greatest memories in all of my history in videogames sliding up and down these hills. The route from bottom to top took about four minutes in an S class drift car, and was a few miles long. Huge corners, tight bends and serious elevation changes made this the best drifting area in the map. The place I spent most of my time in Horizon 1 was undoubtedly drifting the hills of Red Rock, Colorado. And if you’re a drifter, that means a lot. There is quite possibly more of an elevation change in that picture than in all of Horizon 2.
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