The Role Of Hot Air Balloons In The History Of Aviation
Archemedes, ancient Greek mathematician, developed the principle of buoyancy more than 2000 years ago. He and even earlier, the Chinese, may have conceived flying machines utilizing this principle. English scientist, Roger Bacon, in the 13 century proposed ath hypothetical flying machine based on this principle.
But nothing happened until the 19 of September 1783 whenth Pilatre de Rozier, a scientist, launched the first hot air balloon called ‘Aerostat Reveillon.’ The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before crashing back to the ground.
The first manned attempt came about 2 months later on the 21 of November, with ast balloon made by 2 French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the center of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth of hot air ballooning!!! Just 2 years later in 1785 a French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co-pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. In these early days of ballooning, the English Channel was considered the first step to long distance ballooning so this was a large benchmark in ballooning history.
In an attempt to cross the channel in 1785, Pilatre de Rozier (the world’s first balloonist and whose all pilots identify themselves by) Pilatre = Pilot, was killed. His balloon exploded half an hour after take off due to the experimental design of using a hydrogen balloon and hot air balloon tied together.
The next major pivotal point in balloon history was on January 7 1793. Jean Pierreth Blanchard became the first to fly a hot air balloon in North America. George Washington was present to see the balloon launch.
The Europeans worked on and improved the gas balloon and dirigible designs into a craft that could be steered and had longer flight times. Both types – hot air and gas have been flown by balloonists in Europe since the beginning.
In the late 1800’s & early 1900’s another type of popular balloon was flown, the Smoke Balloon. My earliest recollection of balloon enthusiasm came as a 6 year old seeing my first smoke balloon demonstrated at the Marion County Fair in 1956.
These balloons were lifted by a fire on the ground, and did not have any attached heat source. They simply shot up in the air, and then sank back to the ground. Their main use was as an attraction at traveling fairs in the United States. The balloonist would put on a parachute and attach himself to a canvas balloon. Then, several assistants would hold the balloon over a fire pit, getting the air hotter and hotter, and so increasing the upward force. When the force was great enough – and if the balloon hadn’t caught on fire – the assistants would let go and the balloonist would be launched into the air. When the balloon reached its highest point, the balloonist would detach and parachute to the ground.
Since the 1960’s, traditional hot air balloons have enjoyed a renaissance, due in part to a man named Ed Yost and his company, Raven Industries. Yost and his partners founded Raven Industries in 1956 to design and build hot air balloons for the United States Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). The ONR wanted the balloons for short-range transportation of small loads. Yost and his team took the basic concept of the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon and expanded it, adding the propane burner system, new envelope material, a new inflation system and many important safety features.
They also came up with the modern, light-bulb-style envelope shape. Yost first designed large, spherical balloons. These balloons worked well, but had an odd inflation pattern: When the air was heated, the top of the balloon filled up, but the bottom stayed under-inflated. For efficiency, Yost just god rid of the extra fabrick at the bottom, developing the familiar “natural” balloon shape we see today.
By the early 1960’s, the ONR had lost interest in hot air balloons, so Yost began selling his balloons as sporting equipment. Other companies soon sprang up, as more and more people got involved in ballooning. Over the years, designers have continued to modify hot air balloons, adding new materials and safety features, as well as developing creative envelope shapes. Some manufacturers have also increased basket size and load capacity, building balloons that hold up to 20 passengers!
But the basic design is still Yost’s modified version of the Montgolfier brothers’ original concept. This remarkable technology has enthralled people all over the world. Balloon tours are a multi-million dollar business, and balloon races and other events continue to attract crowds of spectators and participants. It’s even become fashionable (among billionaires) to build high-tech balloons for trips around the world. It really says a lot about hot air balloons that they are still so popular, even in the age of Jet planes, helicopters and space shuttles.
Modern Passenger Balloons
A hot air balloon travels as fast as the wind it travels in and the direction it follows. Unlike the common misconception ,hot air balloons are not steerable, quite the opposite is true. Today’s highly trained FAA certified pilots use high-tech weather, GPS technology, training and experience to give their passengers a controlled, serene, highly enjoyable experience of a lifetime.
Modern hot air balloons heat the air by burning propane. Stored as liquid, compressed in light weight cylinders positioned in the balloon basket. The burners heat the liquid propane into a powerful flame (over 12 million BTUs). This heat is trapped and contained by an envelope made of heat resistant, rip-stop nylon. The hot air won’t escape at the bottom of the envelope because buoyancy keeps it moving up. Pilots initiate lift by controlling the heat, allowing the balloon to rise. Most hot air balloons use a wicker basket for a passenger compartment. Strong, flexible, durable, and light weight, the wicker basket has proved to be the best material over all these years.
Hot air balloons have a cord to open the parachute valve at the top of the envelope when the pilot pulls the attached cord, some hot air can escape from the envelope, decreasing the inner air temperature. This causes the balloon to slow its ascent. If the pilot keeps the valve open long enough, the balloon will sink.
Essentially, these are the only controls – heat to make the balloon rise and venting to make it sink. This raises an interesting question: If pilots can only move hot air balloons up and down, how do they get the balloon from place to place? As it turns out, pilots can maneuver horizontally by changing their vertical position, because wind blows in different directions at different altitudes. To move in a particular direction, a pilot ascends and descends to the appropriate level, and rides with the wind. Since wind speed generally increases as you get higher in the atmosphere, pilots can also control horizontal speed by changing altitude.
The Flight
You will normally meet shortly after dawn for a morning flight and 3-4 hours before sunset for an evening flight. This is because the wind is the most calm early morning and at late afternoon. The wind is the most important factor when it comes to a balloon ride as the weather may seem fine early on in the day but wind speeds can change dramatically and this can mean the flight might cancelled. Although this can be somewhat frustrating it is worth it when the flight finally goes ahead. There is nothing quite like riding in a hot air balloon!
The pre-flight setting up of the balloon is just as spectacular a show for the passengers as the actual flight itself as they are able to witness the impressive sight of the envelope being fully inflated.
The envelope is laid out flat and stretched out on as much land as possible. An inflator fan is placed at the neck and the balloon starts to fill up with air. The basket is then attached to the envelope and the burners secured in place. With the balloon now half full of air the burner can be fired up and the rest of the envelope if filled up in no time. The basket is constantly secured to the ground throughout this whole process, to make sure that the balloon doesn’t just take off without all the passengers.
Once the envelope is full and is stood up, the passengers make their way into the basket and when all the weight is fully balanced out the balloon is unsecured from the ropes holding it to the ground and the flight gets underway.
It’s hard to describe the feeling of flying in the balloon, it’s almost like a feeling of weightlessness, as if you are drifting along, floating on air. On a clear day you will be able to see for miles. The hot air balloon flight lasts for about 1 hour in total before the pilot will start looking for a safe place to bring the balloon in to land.
After everyone is safely out, the envelope needs to be deflated and packed back up. The basket and now deflated envelope are then secured on to a van or truck which will have been following the balloon’s path. All the passengers are then driven back to the starting point for the certificate presentation and champagne reception.
The landing can actually be quite a bumpy affair. The pilot will bring the balloon down at a very slow rate and actually land it at a 45 degree angle to the floor. This is to help the basket lose speed and come to a halt quicker The basket might actually end up on it side with the passengers lying horizontal with their torsos sticking out of the top of the basket. There are side rail supports and roped to hang on to make sure nobody falls out.
Balloon Time Line
October 15, 1783 – 1 manned flight in Paris, France
1785 – The First Balloon Across the English Channel: In the early days of ballooning, crossing the English Channel is considered the first step to long distance ballooning. Pilatre de Rozier, the world’s first balloonist, is killed in his attempt to cross the channel. De Rozier’s experimental system consists of a hydrogen balloon and a hot air balloon tied together. Tragically, the craft explodes half an hour after takeoff. This double balloon helium/hot air system, however, remains among the most successful designs for long distance ballooning. This same year, French balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries become the first to fly across the English Channel.
1793 – The First Balloon Flight in North America: A 45-minute flight from Philadelphia to Glouchester County, New Jersey is made by Jean Pierre Blanchard on January 9. George Washington is present to see the balloon launch.
1794-1945 – Balloons Used in Wars: From the U.S. Civil War, through World Wars I and II balloons are used as tools for warfare, for transportation surveying, and communication.
1932 – The First Manned Balloon Flight to the Stratosphere and First use of a Pressurized Capsule for a Balloon Flight: On August 18, Auguste Piccard, a Swiss scientist, soars into the stratosphere in his balloon, “FNRS.’ and sets a new altitude record of 52,498 feet. Over the next few years, altitude records continue to be set, almost monthly, in the push to reach ever higher into the stratosphere.
1935 – New Altitude Record is Set and Remains for 20 Years: Explorer II, a helium gas balloon, sets the altitude record at 72,395 feet, or 13.7 miles, with two crew members on board. For the first time in history, it is proven that humans can travel and survive in a pressurized chamber at extremely high altitudes. This flight sets a milestone for aviation and paves the way for future space travel and the concept of manned flight in space. The highly publicized flight is also able to carry live radio broadcasts from the balloon.
1960 – Altitude Record and Highest Parachute Jump: Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger jumps from a balloon at 102,800 feet on August 16 and sets a world high altitude parachuteth jump (where is breaks the bsound barrier with his body) and freefall record that still stands today.
1961 – Current Official Altitude Record Set: Commander Malcolm Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather of the U.S. Navy ascend to 113,739.9 feet in ‘Lee Lewis Memorial,’ a polyethylene balloon. They land in the Gulf of Mexico where, with his pressure suit filling with water, and unable to stay afloat, Prather drowns.
1978 – First Balloon to Cross the Atlantic: Double Eagle II, a helium balloon carrying Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman becomes the first balloon to cross the Atlantic. A new duration record is set with a flight time of 137 hours.
1981 – First Balloon to Cross the Pacific: Thirteen-story high Double Eagle V, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, Ron Clark and Rocky Acki of Japan, launches from Hagashimi, Japan on November 10 and lands 84 hours, 31 minutes later in Mendocino National Forest in California. A new distance record is set a 5,768 miles.
1984 – First Solo Transatlantic Balloon Flight: Joe Kittinger flied 3,535 miles from Caribou, Maine to Savona, Italy in his helium-filled balloon ‘Rosie O’Grady’s Balloon of Peace.’
1991 – First Hot Air Balloon to Cross the Pacific: Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson become the first to traverse the Pacific by hot air balloon, reaching speeds in the jet stream of up to 245 mph, in their ‘Otsuka Flyer,’ which travels 6,700 miles in 46 hours. They fly from Japan to Arctic Canada and break the world distance record.
1992 – Duration Record Set: Richard Abruzzo, son of previous record-breaker Ben Abruzzo, and Troy Bradley, now currently making his own around-the-world bid with his ‘Odyssey’ project, fly 144 hours, 16 minutes from Bangor, Maine to Morocco in a de Rozier balloon.
1995 – First Solo Transpacific Balloon Flight: February 14-17, Steve Fossett, another around-the-world contender with his Solo Challenger project, launches from Seoul, Korea and flies 4 long days to Mendham, Saskatchawan, Canada.
First Recorded Around The World Flight
The first recorded around the world hot air balloon flight was achieved in 1999 when Swiss Betrand Piccard and British Brian Jones teamed up and broke the record. They launched on Monday, March 1 from Chateau d’Oex in the Swiss Alps and after 19 days, 21 hours and 55st minutes, successfully landed over Mauritania in North Africa. They became the first balloonists to circumnavigate the globe with a non-stop, non-refueled flight, having traveled a ground breaking distance of 42,810 KM.
First Solo Around The World Flight
Steve Fossett became the first balloonist to travel round the world in a hot air balloon on a solo flight. Having tried a previous 6 times, this was a great achievement for him when he landed on Tuesday 2 July 2002, becoming the first and still the only person to have managed tond travel around the world solo in a hot air balloon.
The challenges of free flight, comradeship with thousands of balloonists worldwide, the visual appeal, the opportunity to offer the experience of a lifetime to our friends and clients have firmly cemented our teams love of hot air balloons and continuing to be part of the history of aviation has been a lifetime dream come true.
About the Author
Mark Westra is a Commercial Pilot with LTA (Lighter Than Air) rating and is the owner/operator of the Stars and Heights Hot Air Balloon Flights and Promotions.
Mark Westra
(317) 431-1393
mwestra@starsandheights.com
