2-489-497 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

The balloon 'Entreprenant', flown by Coutelle, at the Battle of Fleurus, 1794 (1890s). In 1794 the revolutionary Committee of Public Safety established a company of balloonists for the French Army, the French Aerostatic Corps, based at Meudon in the suburbs of Paris. One of their balloons, the 'Entreprenant', flown by French chemist Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle (1748-1835), provided vital reconnaissance information on the movements of the Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794. From the series The Dream of Flight. From a private collection.