20th Century Technology
Balloons are considered aircrafts and fall under the regulations of the Federal Aviation Regulations.  In the mid 1930's airships used helium as the lifting element which were produced when war started.

The modern balloon has three main parts:    the envelope, the basket, and the burner.

The envelope has many different shapes, designs, and colors.  Made from rip-stop nylon, coated with plastic internally to contain the heat.  If kept properly it should last 500 or more flying hours. The basket is woven with a vertical weave, tightly finished with a urethane coating.  Sometimes baskets are called the "gondola".  The propane tanks and instrument panels can be found in the basket.  Instruments used are a compass, altimeter, rate of climb indicator, fuel quantity gauge and pyrometer.  The burner is the heart of the balloon usually found over the pilots head and controlled by a hand valve.  Plain air is used in hot air balloons for lifting the aircraft.  Using the burner to heat the air inside, the pilot makes the air lighter than the air outside and the balloon ascends.  When the air inside is cooled, the balloon descends because the air is heavier.

A stratosphere balloon is equipped with oxygen tanks and is airtight.  This is so the pressure inside the balloon is maintained in the thin atmosphere outside the balloon.  Stratosphere flights have obtained information on weather forecasts and radio and cosmic rays.   A free passenger balloon is usually always spherical or pear-shaped.  The bag is made of cloth covered with rubber or something to make it leak proof.  An opening at the bottom called the neck or appendix is where the balloon is filled.  A net encloses the entire bag where the passenger basket is enclosed.  The United States Navy and National Science Foundation launched the largest balloon in 1960.  Research balloons reaching 40 stories-high, cosmic ray weighing 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms) with gondolas.  The balloons used for passenger flights today were developed in the United States during the 1960's and have two main technological advances:

Breitling Orbiter 3 had an advanced design, made of state-of-the-art materials, with advanced life support, and state-of-the-art navigational equipment.  Made of double skin with encompases a large helium-filled gas cell.  the helium expands due to the heat from the sun or from a propane gas heater, as the helium is heated the balloon is lifted.  Altitudes of 26,000 and 40,000 feet can be reached and if carried by powerful winds can hit speeds of 120 miles per hour or more.  Kevlar and carbon fiber construct the gondola.  Instruments found on the flight deck are GPS navigation, satellite voice and data communication systems, VHF, HF radios and transponders.  The envelope can hold the equivalent of 7 Olympic swimming pools, in volume, and equivalent to a fighter plane in its total weight.  Round-the world flight is accomplished with the special features of the jet streams, such as their speed and regularity.

The latest flights by hot-air balloons typically use the following instruments:


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