The National Balloon Classic runs July 30-Aug. 7 this summer in Indianola, where organizers plan to celebrate the event's 50th anniversary.

From the moment the first hot-air balloon took flight in 1783, the earliest pioneers of human flight believed that the true future of aviation depended on the lighter-than-air inflatables and the ...

Illustration from SSPL/Getty Images A History of Balloon Crashes The tragedy in Egypt is not the first time hot-air balloons have met with disaster.