Ballooning Primer

A general background on ballooning technology.

Balloons are the oldest manned aircraft with both buoyant gas ('gas balloon') and hot air balloons both making their debut in 1783 in Paris, France. Both types of aircraft made their first manned flights within 2 weeks of each other. Unlike the early flights of the Wright Brothers, often conducted with few observers, the early manned balloon flights were witnessed by thousands and thousands of observers because the aircraft is VTOL and slow, so oberservers could safely be accomodated near the aircraft.

Gas ballooning became the dominant ballooning technology for over a century after 1783, with the age of modern hot air ballooning starting in the early 1960's in the USA. Early gas balloonists used hydrogen gas produced on site with thousands of pounds of acid and metal in reaction barrels. Starting in the 1800's, the age of 'city gas' allowed balloonist to fill their balloons with 'city gas' or 'coal gas' (comprised of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide) from a gas works.

The earliest membrane balloons were celophane, pioneered in the 1930's by Dr. Jean Piccard. Experimentation with polyethylene in the 1950's and 1960's lead to the precursors of the modern plastic membrane balloons used by scientists and researchers today.