Early balloonists, called aeronauts, traveled across Oklahoma from fair to festival to exhibit their feats of derring-do. Some parachuted from their balloons while others would slide down to the ground on cables attached to their balloons from heights upwards to 1,000 feet. Soon after the Wright brothers proved the possibility of powered, controllable flight, local Oklahoma inventors were building their creations and hoping to be called pilotin the state.
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