Departures of note

In 1803, Count Francesco Zambeccari, an Italian aviation pioneer, launched a balloon from Bologna in bad weather rather than face a second postponement, accompanied by Pasquale Andreoli and Gaetano Grassetti. The balloon crashed into the Adriatic Sea early the following morning, and the crew was rescued. A similar flight with Andreoli in August 1804 also ended in the Adriatic, and they were rescued again.

Born in Bologna in 1752 to Senator Giacomo Zambeccari, Zambeccari studied at the Collegio dei nobili in Parma before serving in the Spanish Guardia Real and Navy. He fled the Spanish Inquisition and was in Paris in 1783, where he observed the Montgolfier brothers' first unmanned balloon flights. He then moved to London, launching the first unmanned balloon in Britain on 4 November 1783 from the house of Michael Biaggini, a maker of artificial flowers, at 33 Noble Street, Cheapside. The balloon was later found by a farmer at Waltham Abbey. He repeated the experiment as a commercial enterprise, selling tickets for a larger balloon released from the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company on 25 November, which was found nearly 40 miles away at Petworth.

Zambeccari was commissioned to launch a balloon in Venice in April 1784, an occasion painted by Francesco Guardi. He collaborated with Vincent Lunardi before Lunardi's first manned flight in England, and on 23 March 1785 ascended with Admiral Sir Edward Vernon in a 34-foot balloon from Tottenham Court Road, landing near Horsham the same day. He moved to St Petersburg in 1787, served in the Russian Imperial Navy, and was captured by the Turks, held prisoner in Constantinople for over two years until the Spanish ambassador secured his freedom.

He returned to Bologna, married Diamante Negrini, and had three children, including Livio. He spent the rest of his life experimenting with balloons, using a combination of hot air and hydrogen known as a rozière, and sought a method of steering with rudders or oars. He published a five-volume work on ballooning in London in 1803. He died in September 1812 when his balloon caught fire after an unsuccessful landing attempt; his companion, Bonaga, survived. He was buried in the family tomb in the Basilica of San Francesco, later moved to the Certosa di Bologna in 1813, and returned to San Francesco in 1926 to be interred with his son Livio.