The balloon
The history of the balloon
The first balloon, a hot-air balloon, was made by Joseph and Jaques Montgolfier on 4th April 1783. It was made from cloth. The balloon flew a distance of 2km and was unmanned. With this flight the aviation era started.
On 19th September 1783, the brothers launched a balloon with passengers (a sheep, a cock and a duck) for the first time. The flight lasted 8 minutes and was 3,5km far.
The next step was of course human passengers. So on 21st November 1783, 2 humans (Jean François Pilatre de Rozier and the marquis of Arlandes) made for the first time in history a manned flight. After 25 minutes the balloon landed safely 8km further.
Nowadays there are 3 types of balloons.
3 types of balloons, 3 slightly different ways to stay in the air
1. The hot-air balloon
This is the most used balloon. It exist from a basket, gas burners (these use propaangas) and the envelope (=the balloon itself). The envelope has at the top a spherical shape and has a funnel shaped opening at the underside.
Ready for take-off? The hot-air balloon is spread out before the start of the flight and is filled with cold air using a big ventilator, so that the envelope becomes spherical. Next the air in the balloon is heated by the gas burners, so the balloon stands up. Now the passengers can step onboard and when the balloonist activates the gas burners, the balloon rises. This happens because hot air is lighter than cold air. Watch a video about the start of a balloon here.
To rise, the balloonist must heat the air in the balloon more using the gas burners.
When the gas burners are off, the air in the balloon cools and the balloon descents. For a quicker descent, a valve at the top of the balloon can be opened. The direction of the balloon depends on the wind direction, because a balloon hasn’t control surfaces.
Of course there weren’t gas burners in the time of the brothers Montgolfier. They used a big wood fire and took care that there was very much smoke, because they thought that the smoke was the reason for the lift.
2. The gas balloon
The gas balloon is filled with helium, a safe but very expensive gas. This is done via the ‘fill trunk’, an appendix beneath the gas balloon. A gas balloon hasn’t gas burners. To rise the balloonist must throw ballast out of the balloon. To descent, the balloonist pulls on a chord, that is linked with a valve at the top of the balloon, so that gas escapes from the balloon.
Unfortunately, gas balloons are rare because of the high cost of the helium.
3. The Rosière balloon
A Rosière balloon uses hot air and helium. This type of balloon is most used for long distance record flights. The most know Rosière balloon is the Breitling-Orbiter, this balloon made a flight around the world. The pilots who did this were the Swiss Bertrand Piccard and the Brit Brian Jones. For more information, visit Breitling Air-Time.
