Some important moments in ballooning history!

  • June 1783 – Montgolfier brothers, in France, hot air from a charcoal fire, unmanned.
  • August 1783 – Jacques Charles, in Paris, hydrogen, unmanned.
  • September 1783 – Versailles, France, hot air, tethered flight, first passengers in a balloon: a lamb, a duck, and a rooster; first casualty: broken leg on the rooster.
  • October 1783 – first manned flight, Francois de Rozier, hot air, tethered.
  • December 1, 1783 – Jacques Charles and Nicholas Roberts made the first “manned” ballooned flight. His balloon consisted of a 9 meter rubberized silk envelope called “Globe.” He used 540 kg of iron filings and 270 kg of diluted Sulfuric acid to produce the Hydrogen to fill the balloon. It took 4 days to fill. After a 25 minute flight, the pair landed in a field 27 miles northwest of Paris.
  • June 24, 1784 – first manned flight, Edward Warren, age 13.
  • August 27, 1804 – Jean Biot and Joseph Gay-Lussoc ascended in a H2-filled balloon to a level of 7 km. They made observations and measurements of temperature and effects of altitude on the animals which they carried with them. They determined the proportions of N2 and O2 to be the same at this altitude.
  • 1960 – the highest scientific balloon flight, Capt. Jospeh W. Kittinger, Jr., of the USAF, 34.3 km above the New Mexico desert. Kittinger, after reaching this altitude, wearing a pressure suit, jumped from the balloon. At 6 km, at a speed of 380 km/hr, his parachute opened automatically; 9 minutes later he landed safely on the ground.
  • “Double Eagle II” flies from Presque Isle, Maine to France, marking the first transatlantic balloon flight.
  • 1980 – A young American attempted to fly even higher on a “craft” consisting of several hydrogen filled balloons. He reached an elevation of about 10 km, where the air temperature registered -30C. Almost frozen, the young man could barely manage to shoot some of his balloons so that he could return to Earth. To add insult to injury, the police booked him for violating US air space regulations when he reached the ground.
  • March 20, 1999 – After a 46,759-mile balloon flight which lasted 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes, the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon, flown by Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard, achieves a non-stop round-the-world balloon flight.
  • July 2, 2002 – Stever Fossett, in the 180-foot-tall “Spirit of Freedom” balloon, circumnavigates the globe on his sixth try.

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Balloon Activity Analysis Questions

  1. Why does the balloon rise?
  1. Why does the balloon sink?
  1. What is the purpose of ballast?
  1. Calculate the surface area of your balloon in cm3.
  1. Estimate your balloon’s volume. Hint: volume of a cylinder
  1. Identify the variables that you were able to control to improve your chances of winning the balloon contest.