In 1783, two brothers named Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier inaugurated the era of human flight with a 3,000-foot high balloon ride near Paris. The following year, a fellow Frenchman named Jean-Pierre Blanchard invented the dirigible, a steerable balloon that was a forerunner to blimps and Zeppelins. The twentieth century saw a boom in aviation, from the 1903 historic flight by the Wright brothers to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The lattice of the silver-bearing mineral stephanite, seen here in light blue, is reminiscent of navigational maps.