Hot Air Balloons Nov 1st

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Hot-air ballooning is a popular recreational activity. Aside from leisurely morning or afternoon trips drifting cross-country to enjoy the view, this activity is also used in competitive sports events, and many balloonists are striving to set new records. Commercial ballooning businesses can be found practically anywhere in the world. Some people take rides on balloons that transport 10 to 20 people at a time in huge partitioned baskets. Flights typically last one to three hours and cover a distance of several kilometers, however, they frequently land close to the take-off location. After a hot air balloon journey, it is still a tradition for balloonists around the world to offer champagne to passengers upon landing. Now let’s explore more about hot air balloons.

During the pre-modern world, starting around the 4th century BC, the Chinese first started using ‘fire balloons’ or what we know today as ‘Chinese sky lanterns’ as signals during warfare, to send letters and to commemorate festivals. These sky lanterns are the precursor to hot air balloons and are lifted up by a candle that heats air inside the top round portion (envelope) of the lantern which is the same lifting principle hot air balloons use.

Do you know that animals were the first hot air balloon passengers? In the late 18th century, the Montgolfier brothers created the first hot air balloons. They demonstrated it publicly in September 1783 containing a sheep, a duck, and a rooster passenger inside. The first manned flight, with passengers Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Francois Laurent, took place in November 1783. Hot air balloons were the first successful human-carrying aviation technology, and as years went by, the product continued to improve, and they were used to travel a long distance in various countries such as Germany, the US, and the UK.

In the 1950s, Ed Yost led the development of modern hot-air balloons with an onboard heat source (light burners fueled by bottled propane) that allows re-heating of air within the balloon making a flight longer. It's fascinating to observe the hot air balloon's growth. Early hot air balloons relied on burned materials onboard to fly, but now hot-air balloons are designed to carry their own tanks that provide helium or hydrogen gas which are lighter than air and more reliable and safer than flying with an open flame.

The following are the components of a modern hot air balloon:

1.) Envelope or Balloon - a fabric bag constructed of durable, light nylon with a mouth opening at one end.

2.) Balloon basket - where the passengers are carried and is attached to the envelope's bottom by very strong metal cables.

3.) Burner - the balloon's engine which burns liquid propane mixed with oxygen from pressurized gas tanks.

Hot air balloons fly due to rising heated air. The air within the balloon becomes lighter than the cooler air outside by heating it with the burner. As if it were in the water, this allows the balloon to float higher. Obviously, allowing the air to cool causes the balloon to gradually fall down. The altitude of the balloon is under the control of the pilots, who monitor it with various equipment. Over time, they develop exceptional anticipating skills and can typically regulate the descent of a balloon to within centimeters.

A pilot's license or airman's certificate is required to pilot a hot air balloon, just as it is for an airplane, however, a hot air balloon is a different category of aircraft with its own set of training requirements. You will get Lighter-than-Air (LTA) certification which includes one-on-one training with a flight instructor.

A significant figure in the history of hot air balloons is Steve Fossett. On July 1, 2002, he was the first person to fly alone around the world in a balloon. He was able to go more than 20,000 miles in just 14 days, and land safely back in Australia, permanently immortalizing himself in the history books of hot air balloons and adding to his incredible list of aviation achievements. There was also a specifically constructed autopilot system that allowed him to take short resting intervals during the 14-day journey, allowing him to complete the extraordinary milestone of staying in the air alone for so long.