The Balloon.

The desire for flying it perhaps as old as the mankind itself. The man has from time immemorial tried to copy the birds´ flight . But many tragic destinies had to come, to let the people find out, that the imitation of the birds´ flight is not the right way.

Many people noticed, that the warm air goes up – look into the fireplace which in on fire. But only two of them educed the inferences: the brothers Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michel Montgolier.

The Montgoliers were the producers of paper and had a factory near Lyon in France. They found out, that a light bag filled with smoke from the glowing straw and wool flies up. In 1783 they released a silky balloon plastered with paper and filled with hot air: during the ten-minute-flight the balloon got over the longer distance than 1 km! But there hadn’t been any people in the balloon’s basket so far. The first conquerors of the air were (just like few centuries later when conquering the space) the animals. . In this case a cock, dub and ram. Among the first spectators there were Louis XIV. and Mary Antoinette.

The first people, who had the courage to fly in the balloon (which was called montgolfier) were Jean Pilatre de Rozier and the marquis Francois d´Arlande. Their montgolfier was 20 metres height and in its widest place the diameter was 14 metres.

Under the balloon there was a gallery for the “pilot” with the furnace in the middle (to warm the air). Their flight took place in Paris on 21. November 1783. During the first 25 minutes the balloon covered 9 kms. But after this a whole was burnt into the balloon’s coat and so the balloon had to land … They wee lucky: some others died. The French Jacques Alexandre Charles created a more perfect balloon filled with the light hydrogen and he was also the first man who did the first flight.

The balloons did awake great enthusiasm, but soon it appeared, that they have many disadvantages. Mainly they are badly manoeuvrable and they don’t have the gearing.

The airships brought the solution. When Paris was encircled by the Prussian army in 1870, the Prussian officer Ferdinand von Zeppelin noticed, that the French transfer the loads to the encircled city with the help of balloons. Therefore he started to work on the construction of an airship, which could be – in contrast to the balloons – controllable. He created his first airship in 1900 and filled it with hydrogen, too. It was not too successful but Zeppelin was constantly improving it and so in 1909 the airships could be introduced as means of transport. Until the world war one about 35 thousands of people were transported with airships. This success could not be left without notice by the German government, which placed an order to Zeppelin. They ordered the whole squadron – more than 100 airships could bomb the hostile cities during the WW1. The first flight across the Atlantic ocean to America was realised by the major Scott with an airship from Great Britain in 1919.

Zeppelin died in 1917 and so he didn’t live to see the great boom of the inter-continental flights in the 30s. His best known airship was Graf Zeppelin, which had flown more than 1.600.000 kms. The greatest pride was Hindenburg. It was 248 metres long and its diameter was 41 metres. Four engines did allow to reach the speed up to 150 kms/hour and without a stopover it managed 14.000 kms. It had cabins for 50 passengers with hot and cold water, smoking room and so on. But on 6. May 1937 a disaster happened on Hindenburg: it exploded and 36 people died.

Gondola and one of 4 diesel engines Mercedes-Benz
(4 figs. above from http://www.airships.net/)

The modern age returns us partly to the advantages of airships. More and more we meet the classic balloons with hot air. The perfect materials of the balloons coats and efficient gas burners allow the development of this beautiful sport’s discipline.

kmodell7.jpg (4576 bytes)

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Zeppelin LZ N07 filled helium
(1997)
(http://www.zeppelin-nt.com/gallery.htm)

Flying as sports >
(http://www.balloon.cz/galerie.html)