What did the villagers see in the sky that day?

On 27 August 1783, the people of a village in France looked up into the sky and saw a strange and terrible animal. It was huge and round and it was moving down from the sky. It landed in a field just outside the village. It was clear to the people that they had to defend themselves. The animal was clearly some kind of terrible ’monster’. They were afraid of the monster but they were also very brave. They rushed out into the field and attacked the animal with knives and sticks and farming tools. The monster made terrible noises, like an animal that can breathe only with great difficulty. But that was not the worst thing. When the villagers cut into the monster’s skin, it gave off a strange smell. And even after the villagers had cut the thing open, it still moved. Finally, the villagers tied it to a horse. The horse ran through the fields and the monster was tom to pieces.
    In 1783 people had never seen anything but birds in the sky. We have come a long way since then. The history of flight and air travel is full of many interesting stories.