About ballooning

Hot air balloons belong to the flying machines, that are lighter than air. It does not mean, that each part of them has to fullfil this condition, but the whole balloon set has to. The basket and equipment, pilot and his snack, passengers with their cameras, sand in their shoes, change and mobile phones in their pockets are objects, that- freely put in the air- immediately go into free fall. (Their high specific gravity does not allow them to fly). To be the balloon able to fly, the whole set must reach lower average specific gravity, than the gravity of surrounding atmosphere is. From that reason, aeronauts put above the basket a huge textil bag filled with gas lighter than surrounding air. We call this bag a balloon envelope.

Since brothers Montgolfier made their first balloon from paper, a lot of different kinds of gas have been tried, that were able to rise up with people. Nowadays we now, there are two basic ways. The first one is to fill the envelope with gas lighter than air. The envelopes were filled with hydrogen or coal gas and sealed properly. Such balloons were able to overcome long distances. When descending, some sand was poured out and the aeronauts could fligh in the air until their natural physical needs (to eat and sleep) forced them to land. However, there were some disadvantages. Both these kinds of gas are extremely flammable and it is not too pleasant to fligh with several thousand cubic meters of potential explosive over your head. Therefore, these means of transport were for non-smokers only. Another option was inert helium, that does not burn, but filling the envelope with helium is very expensive. Deflating the balloon after landing is not too economical, however it is not always possible to store such a huge balloon in a room.

The other way are hot air balloons. They do not explode and no one regrets several thousand hectolitres of hot air. Their can not fly such distances, as the air inside needs to be heated, and when there is little fuel, the balloon sinks and sinks..... The burning system consists of several gas bombs and a burner, that looks like a big gas cooker. The pilot steers the baloon with „heating“ or „non heating“. If you do „not heat“ for a longer time, the balloon „descends“, „sinks“ or „falls“ depending on the time of „non heating“.

Now, in the same way as at times of Jules Verne, brave men and women get in the basket to conquer the altitudes and say „you“ to the birds. They are still „fearless and do not worry to look death in the face“. And when the machine happens to fall and they get rid of fuel, these gentlemen stay loayal to their knightly tradition and leave their air ship as the last ones :-)

Print


Weather forecast

Předpověď na dnešek Předpověď na zítřek Předpověď na pozítří Předpověď na další den Předpověď na další den

© 2024 PROMO - AIR s.r.o.

Sitemap