balloon
DETAILS/DESCRIPTION: Frenchman Joseph Montgolfier and his brother Jacques (the Montgolfier brothers*) constructed the first hot air balloon in 1783. It flew initially by itself, then shortly thereafter with three farm animals.
The first Montgolfier balloon was made of woven fabric and paper, was fueled by straw and wool, rose seventy feet, and flew for one minute. Other creative minds went to work, and soon major advancements were made. Hydrogen gas was used instead of hot air, and balloons were put to use for military and scientific purposes. During wartime, balloons served as stationary observation posts. For exploration of the upper air, balloons have proved invaluable toward significant advances in weather science.
Today there are ballooning clubs and local competitions for recreational “sport” balloonists. In 1999 two men successfully flew nonstop around the world in a balloon. Current balloons rely on propane gas and are constructed largely of nylon and Mylar plastic.
NASA’s solar-heated balloons serve several purposes. The balloons can lower spacecraft down to a planet’s surface; carry aerial photography equipment above the planet; and perform remote-sensing science by delivering equipment to various altitudes above the planet. These solar-heated balloons use either ammonia or helium.
ONELINER: The hot air balloon
OTHER CONNECTIONS: None
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zaunders, Bo, Feathers, Flaps, & Flops. Dutton Children’s Books. New York. 2001. pp.9-12.
Balloon. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=12171.
“Joseph and Jacques Michel Etienne Montgolfier.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2003. http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.mill1.sjlibrary.org:80/servlet/BioRC.
“Balloons Examine Distant Planets.” USA Today (Periodical) 129 no2673 8 Je 2001. Retrieved from Wilson Web Online: OmniFile full text mega edition. http://libaccess.sjsu.edu:2060/hww/shared/shared_main.jhtml;jsessionid=AMGFPG3BWQD5JA3DIMCFFOADUNBIIV0?_requested=145417.
“First in Flight?” American Scientist (Periodical) 91 no6 501-2 N/D 2003. Retrieved from Wilson Web Online. http://libaccess.sjsu.edu:2060/hww/shared/shared_main.jhtml;jsessionid=AMGFPG3BWQD5JQA3DIMCFFOADUNBIIV0?_requested=145090.
Karwatka, Dennis, “The Montgolfier Brothers and the First Hot Air Balloon” Tech Directions 62 no3 10-11 O 2002. Retrieved from Wilson Web Online.
In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner.
Many balloons have a basket, gondola or capsule suspended beneath the main envelope for carrying people or equipment (including cameras and telescopes, and flight-control mechanisms).
Contents
Unmanned hot air balloons are popular in Chinese history. Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom, in theThree Kingdoms era (220–280 AD) used airborne lanterns for military signaling. These lanterns are known as Kongming lanterns (孔明灯).[5][6] Mongolian army studied Kongming lanterns from Chinese and used it in Battle of Legnica during Mongol invasion of Poland.[7] This is the first time balloon was known by western world. In 1709 the Portuguese cleric Bartolomeu de Gusmão made a balloon filled with heated air rise inside a room in Lisbon. He is also claimed to have built a balloon named Passarola (Big bird) and attempted to lift himself from Saint George Castle in Lisbon, landing about one kilometre away.[8][9][10][11][12][13][citation needed]This claim is not generally recognized by aviation historians outside the Portuguese speaking community, in particular the FAI.[14][15]
The first modern balloons[]
Following Henry Cavendish's 1766 work on hydrogen, Joseph Black proposed that a balloon filled with hydrogen would be able to rise in the air.
The first recorded manned flight was made in a hot air balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers on 21 November 1783.[14][16] The flight started in Paris and reached a height of 500 feet or so. The pilots, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes, covered about 5½ miles in 25 minutes.
On 1 December 1783, Professor Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers made the first gas balloon flight, also from Paris. Their hydrogen-filled balloon flew to almost 2,000 feet (600 m), stayed aloft for over 2 hours and covered a distance of 27 miles (43 km), landing in the small town ofNesles-la-Vallée.
Pilâtre Rozier took part in a further flight on 23 June 1784, in a modified version of the Montgolfiers' first balloon christened La Marie-Antoinetteafter the Queen, which took off in front of the King of France and King Gustav III of Sweden. Together with Joseph Proust, the balloon flew north at an altitude of approximately 3,000 metres, above the clouds. They travelled 52 km in 45 minutes before cold and turbulence forced them to descend past Luzarches, between Coye et Orry-la-Ville, near the Chantilly forest. They set records for speed, altitude and distance travelled.
The first balloon ascent in Britain was made by James Tytler on 25 August 1784 at Edinburgh, Scotland, in a hot air balloon.
The first aircraft disaster occurred in May 1785 when the town of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland was seriously damaged when the crash of a balloon resulted in a fire that burned down about 100 houses, making the town home to the world's first aviation disaster. To this day, the town shield depicts a phoenix rising from the ashes.
On 29 September 1804, Abraham Hopman became the first Dutchman to make a successful balloon flight in the Netherlands.[17]Jean-Pierre Blanchard went on to make the first manned flight of a balloon in America on 9 January 1793, after touring Europe to set the record for the first balloon flight in countries including the Austrian Netherlands, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. His hydrogen filled balloon took off from a prison yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The flight reached 5,800 feet (1,770 m) and landed in Gloucester County, New Jersey. PresidentGeorge Washington was among the guests observing the takeoff.
Gas balloons became the most common type from the 1790s until the 1960s. The French military observation balloon L'Intrépide of 1795 is the oldest preserved aircraft in Europe; it is on display in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna. Jules Verne wrote a short, non-fiction story, published in 1852, about being stranded aboard a hydrogen balloon.[18]
The earliest successful balloon flight recorded in Australia was by William Dean in 1858. His balloon was gas-filled and travelled 30 km with two people aboard.[19]
Henri Giffard also developed a tethered balloon for passengers in 1878 in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. The first tethered balloon in modern times was made in France at Chantilly Castle in 1994 by Aerophile SA.
Military use[]
Main article: History of military ballooning
See also: Observation balloon
The first military use of a balloon was at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794, when L'Entreprenant was used by the French Aerostatic Corps to watch the movements of the enemy. On 2 April 1794, an aeronauts corps was created in the French army; however, given the logistical problems linked with the production of hydrogen on the battlefield (it required constructing ovens and pouring water on white-hot iron), the corps was disbanded in 1799.
The first major use of balloons in the military occurred during the American Civil War with the Union Army Balloon Corps established in 1861.
Balloons were used by the British Royal Engineers in 1885 for reconnaissance and observation purposes during the Bechuanaland Expedition and the Sudan Expedition. Although experiments in Britain had been conducted as early as 1863, a School of Ballooning was not established atChatham, Medway, Kent until 1888. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), use was made of observation balloons. A 11,500 cubic feet (330 m3) balloon was kept inflated for 22 days and marched 165 miles into the Transvaal with the British forces.[20]During the Paraguayan War (1864–70), observation balloons were used by the Brazilian Army.
Hydrogen-filled balloons were widely used during World War I (1914–1918) to detect enemy troop movements and to direct artillery fire. Observers phoned their reports to officers on the ground who then relayed the information to those who needed it. Balloons were frequently targets of opposing aircraft. Planes assigned to attack enemy balloons were often equipped with incendiary bullets, for the purpose of igniting the hydrogen.
The Aeronaut Badge was established by the United States Army in World War I to denote service members who were qualified balloon pilots. Observation balloons were retained well after the Great War, being used in the Russo-Finnish Wars, the Winter War of 1939–40, and theContinuation War of 1941–45.
During World War II the Japanese launched thousands of helium "fire balloons" against the United States and Canada. In Operation Outward the British used balloons to carry incendiaries to Nazi Germany.
Large helium balloons are used by the South Korean government and private activists advocating freedom in North Korea. They float hundreds of kilometers across the border carrying news from the outside world, illegal radios, foreign currency and gifts of personal hygiene supplies. A North Korean military official has described it as "psychological warfare" and threatened to attack South Korea if their release continued.[21][22]
==
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern day balloons are made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, and can come in many colors. Some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig bladder. Some balloons are used for decorative purposes, while others are used for practical purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation. A balloon's properties, including its lowdensity and low cost, have led to a wide range of applications.
The rubber balloon was invented by Michael Faraday in 1824, during experiments with various gases.[1]
Contents
Research Notes:
Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air Richard Holmes
==
Mary Shelley, the author of "Frankenstein," wrote a later novel which involves flying a balloon from London to Scotland. But the very interesting connection is with Edgar Allan Poe who was reading - I mentioned earlier on - Charles Green, who flew through the night into Germany.
And he published a wonderful description of that flight, including the idea that flying at night - this wonderful phrase, he said, this flying - like flying into a solid block of black marble. Very frightening experience. And that idea of being entombed is picked up by the young Edgar Allan Poe writing in New York and Boston. And he writes a series of balloon stories, one, about flying a balloon to the moon with amazing technical detail.
But the best of all, as in 1844, he writes a superb account of how Charles Green, having come back from Germany, launches in a new balloon in Ireland and flies westwards, right across to the American shore, a journey of 3,500 miles. And he publishes in the New York Sun - the journal - Charles Green's flight journal, and very good technical details.
And they run this piece to New York Sun for three days. And it's a complete scoop. It triples the circulation of that newspaper. And on the third day, he reveals it's a complete hoax. It's a fiction. OK. And there are many other examples. The wonderful...
FLATOW: Right.
HOLMES: ...Jules Verne, his first science fiction novel, it's called "Five Weeks in a Balloon," which is about three mad Brits flying across Africa, from east to west. And again, very exciting, crazy flying over a volcano and getting attacked by condors. When it's reviewed, it's so beautifully written that the French reviewers review it as a nonfiction book. So that, I say, it's very poor, is that relation between fiction and nonfiction in science....http://www.npr.org/2013/11/15/245435025/early-balloonists-took-science-up-up-and-away