Different Kinds of Balloons and Their Uses

Modern air ship, Zeppelin, photo by AngMoKio.

       A balloon is a bag which, when filled with a gas lighter than air, rises from the ground. Such a bag must be made of a material through which gas and water will not pass.

       There are many different kinds of balloons: rubber toy balloons, weather bureau balloons, blimps, dirigibles, large advertising balloons and free flight racing and experimental balloons. The toy balloons once sold at circuses were made of rubber and filled with a gas which made them rise into the air. Comic balloons (of animals and famous characters), were made of the same kind of rubber,  usually filled with air, and did not rise far from the ground. Blimps were also non-rigid airships, frequently used in training pilots for larger passenger airships at one time.

       In France, during the eighteenth century, there lived two brothers, Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier. They had observed the clouds in the sky with a great deal of interest. They believed that if they could enclose a cloud-like vapor in a very light bag it would rise into the air, so they filled a large linen bag with air and then heated it by building a straw fire under the bag. The bag rose, stayed in the air ten minutes, and came to earth one and one half miles away. Later in the same year, hydrogen was used in place of hot air, and bags were varnished with a solution of elastic gum.

       The first aerial travelers were a cock, a sheep and a duck. The balloon that carried them rose to a height of fifteen hundred feet, and stayed in the air eight minutes. The passengers were uninjured, save for a broken wing suffered by the cock when the sheep kicked wildly. The same year saw the first human ascent. Jean de Rozier, a Frenchman, ascended in a captive balloon (one anchored to the ground).

       As early as 1784, balloons were used for scientific purposes, the balloonists taking with them thermometers, barometers and other scientific instruments. In earlier times, when a balloon ascended for scientific study, it carried more than a ton of scientific apparatus, including an automatic camera and complete radio equipment.

"Balloons are a great aid to the weather man. He sends up small balloons to which are fastened boxes containing recording instruments and miniature parachutes. The balloons burst at a very high altitude, and the parachutes bring the instruments safely to earth. Small pilot-balloons are used to measure the winds. These balloons are usually inflated with hydrogen and their rising speed is known. They are followed in their flight through a special kind of telescope called a theodolite ; thus the speed and direction of the air currents can be determined. This information is important, especially to airplane pilots." Wipple.

       Modern weather balloons are now equipped with lighter weight instruments. Specialized uses also exist, such as for aviation interests, pollution monitoring, photography or videography and research.

• The Ultimate Weather Balloon Guide to Sending Anything to Near-Space

       At first, spherical balloons were used for observation purposes, but they spun so that it was exceedingly difficult to make observations from them. Streamlined, stabilized balloons overcame that difficulty. During the World War balloons were used to aid in directing gun fire, especially at submarines. The balloons were towed by special balloon-carrying vessels. Sometimes, vessels floated small balloons carrying dummy men. Those balloons deceived the enemy, for they appeared to be real observation balloons at a great height.

• Early Balloons narrated by Paul Garber
• History of Balloons (1944)

       The process of spreading rubber on balloon cloth was studied as early as 1910. Since then many inventions and improvements have made balloon construction a very scientific and complex industry. Every square foot of material used in a balloon passes through a rubberizing machine as many as thirty times, each time receiving a very thin coat of rubber. Not one stitch is used in putting together more than two acres of cloth, which is cut into thousands of pieces. Each piece is carefully cemented to its neighbor with rubber tape on both sides of the seam, so that in the finished bag the seams are stronger than the neighboring fabric, which is woven of long, strong cotton fibers. More than three hundred gallons of the purest rubber cement and several miles of cloth are used in the construction of one large balloon such as the Explorer II, used in studying the sun's rays and the temperature and winds of the upper atmosphere. Its gondola weighs four hundred and fifty pounds, is made of a material very much lighter than aluminum, and is little more than one quarter of an inch in thickness.

• A huge balloon Explorer II sets a new altitude record by flying at 74,000 feet
• The Race for Space and The 75th Anniversary of Flight to Stratosphere - Explorer II

       In the 1930s, helium is all important for inflating balloons. It was used by the Hindenburg, the largest balloon of it's time. The Hindenburg made regular trips across the Atlantic ocean, carrying both passengers and freight. Whipple.

• LZ 129 Hindenburg
• Hindenburg - Titanic of The Skies
• Gas Ballon vs. Hot Air Balloons

How to fly a hot air balloon.

       A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries passengers and a source of heat, in most cases an open flame caused by burning liquid propane. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere. The envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air inside the envelope there is at about the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric and the inlet of the balloon (closest to the burner flame) is made from a fire resistant material such as Nomex. Modern balloons have been made in all kinds of shapes, such as rocket ships and the shapes of various commercial products, though the traditional shape is used for most non-commercial, and many commercial, applications. Read more...