The heroine, Amelia Wren, is a fictional character who does not exist in history. But the character wasn't invented out of thin air, but was inspired by France's Sophie Blanchard (pictured below), the world's first female balloon pilot (source can be found in this quote from the film director below).
Per Movie Maker, following a screening at the Savannah College of Art and Design, director Tom Harper cited French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard as that secondary inspiration. "She was so different from James Glaisher, I thought… wouldn't it be amazing, dramatically, to put those two very different people in the basket together?" he said. Blanchard, according to the Smithsonian Magazine, was the first professional female balloonist, who earned the favor of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XVIII.
Sophie Blanchard
The one who really took to the sky with James Glaisher was balloonist Henry Coxwell (pictured below), a bearded grandfather. He and James have been working together since 1860, and on September 5, 1862, they rode together in a balloon to their highest point at the time, 11,000 meters above sea level (that's the story of the film).
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