Collin Gutmann

Foundations of Engineering

3/22/09

Hot Air Balloon

 The history of ballooning begins with the Chinese. Their first recorded use of

balloons is in the year 220 A.D. They made unmanned hot air balloons known as

Kongming or sky lanterns which were used for signaling. The lanterns were made of rice

paper over a bamboo frame, with a candle as a heat source.

The next recorded use of balloons was by a Portuguese priest, Bartolomeu de

Gusmão, in August of 1709. He made a small paper balloon that flew approximately four

meters off the ground. He later attempted a manned flight with a larger balloon he named

the Passarola, which is Portuguese for big bird. He only succeeded in crashing a short

distance away.

The first recorded successful balloon flights were by the brothers Joseph-Michel

and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier. They had observed that laundry drying over a fire

would often rise, inspiring the idea for a balloon. Their first test was done with a box

made of very thin wood and covered in paper. They lit a fire underneath and the box

immediately rose. They then built one three times larger and launched it on December 14,

1782. They lost control of it and the box flew almost two kilometers. It was destroyed in

the landing.

Their next balloon was globe shaped and made of sackcloth, with three layers of

paper inside. They made a public demonstration of it on June 4, 1783. News of it spread

quickly, and they had a wallpaper manufacturer, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, help them make

a larger balloon, the Aerostat Réveillon. Its first test was on September 11. On September

19, the first flight with living beings was made. A sheep, a duck, and a rooster were sent

up 1500 feet in an eight minute flight covering two miles. The sheep was chosen as it was

thought to approximate human physiology, while the duck was a control, as it was
thought the altitude change would have no effect upon it. The flight landed safely with all

animals alive and well.

Next, the brothers built an even larger balloon. They tested with Pilâtre de Rozier,

a physician volunteer, on October 15 in tethered flights. On November 21 the first free

flight in a balloon by a human was made by Pilâtre de Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes.

They launched from a park in the western outskirts of Paris and flew at an altitude of

3000 feet for 25 minutes. They covered a distance of nine kilometers.

From the 1790’s to the 1960’s, hot air balloons were superseded by gas balloons.

This is partially because the person in charge of the development of balloons in France

favored hydrogen balloons. As France was the center of early balloon development, this

was reflected upon the rest of the world.

Hot air balloons began to make a comeback when Ed Yost began pioneering with

modern materials and an onboard heat source in the 1950’s. He made his first successful

flight on October 22, 1960. He still kept the Montgolfier upside down teardrop shape.

Some improvements have been made in aerodynamic shape for racing balloons, but most

recreational balloon keep the traditional shape. Modern balloons can flier higher, farther,

and longer than earlier models. Great advances in materials have made this possible.