In 1914, eleven years after the Wright Brothers took flight at Kitty Hawk, the first aeronautics class was offered at the University of Michigan, launching what would become the U.S.’s first collegiate aeronautics program.

U-M students were also learning about aeronautics outside the classroom as they took to the skies in gliders, simple planes — and, by the 1920s, hot air balloons.

These students were part of U-M’s Aero Club, and in 1925, they formed a “balloon division” when U-M was given a balloon by the Michigan Aero Society. The balloon was in a state of disrepair, so students fixed its damaged netting and mended its torn oiled silk gas bag.

In May 1926, it was determined the balloon, named “Michigan No. 1,” was ready for a test flight. The balloon’s inaugural crew consisted of two students, professor Milton J. Thompson, and Ralph Upson, an experienced pilot and one-time U-M instructor.

According to an account of the event written by Thompson and included in a history of U-M aeronautics compiled by professor Robert P. Weeks in 1964, the flight was scheduled to launch May 8 from a cleared area near a gas line in north Detroit, right after sundown. By evening, however, the balloon’s gas bag was leaking badly, making it too dangerous to attempt a flight. The crew spent the entire night feeding gas into the bag to keep it inflated.

When the sun rose May 9, good fortune dawned. The morning heat softened the oil in the bag enough to reduce the leakage, and Upson declared it was safe to proceed.

The balloon launched at 6:30 a.m. and rose to an altitude of about 2,500 feet, as winds carried it westward over Ann Arbor. Between Ann Arbor and Jackson, the balloon was allowed to rise to 6,500 feet, and the winds carried the crew south into Ohio, just west of Toledo. The flight lasted six hours, and the crew had traveled about 100 miles before landing in a clearing, startling a nearby farmer.

That successful flight kickstarted a balloon obsession for some U-M students, with several entering balloon races, where they won money and acclaim. One of the most notable balloon flights, shared in Weeks’ history compilation, was by U-M student Mil Yanik, who decided to fly from Cleveland to Ann Arbor to attend the Michigan versus Minnesota football game. He left Cleveland at 11 p. m. in late November 1931, and thought he’d be there by morning. Over Lake Erie, however, he got caught in a snow and sleet storm that kept him bobbing over the water all night. When the sun finally rose, Yanik could see nothing but water.

He drifted northeast over Lake Huron and, after 18 hours, finally saw land. He descended as quickly as he could, but soon discovered he was in the middle of nowhere. He abandoned his balloon in a tree and walked for three days before coming across a farmhouse, where he learned he was in northwest Ontario.

Years later, Yanik reportedly said, “As far as I know, the balloon is still there, hanging in the trees. Incidentally, I have found there are better ways of going to football games.”

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• It Happened at Michigan