Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (baptised 30 March 1754 in Metz, died 15 June 1785 in Wimereux /Pas-de-Calais) was a French chemistry and physics teacher, and one of the first pioneers of aviation.
The son of an innkeeper, he botanized in the company of the duc de la Rochefoucauld, in the democratic companionship that early science fostered. His interests in the chemistry of drugs had been awakened in the military hospital of Metz, an important garrison town on the border of France. He made his way to Paris, then taught physics and chemistry at reims, which brought him to the attention of the king's brother, Monsieur, the comte d'Artois, who put him in charge of his cabinet of natural history and made him a valet de chambre to Madame, which brought him his ennobled name, Pilâtre de Rozier. Soon however he opened his own museum in the Marais quarter of Paris, researched the new field of gases and invented a respirator.
In June 1783 he was present at the unoccupied balloon ascension of the Montgolfier brothers. That September he sent aloft from the front courtyard of Versailles, in an untethered balloon, a sheep, a cockerel and a duck. On 21 November 1783 he made the first manned free flight in history, accompanied by the Marquis d'Arlandes. During the 25-minute flight using a Montgolfier hot air balloon, they traveled 12 kilometers from the château of La Muette to the Butte aux Cailles on the outskirts of Paris, attaining an altitude of 3000 feet.
De Rozier died during an attempted crossing of the English Channel when his balloon, a combination hydrogen and hot air balloon, exploded on 15 June 1785. Thus, he and his companion, Pierre Romain, became the first known victims of an air crash.
The modern hybrid gas and hot air balloon is named the Rozier balloon after his pioneering design.