History of the NBC
The Nebraska Balloon Club came into existence in January, 1977. The BFA (Balloon Federation of America) received notification of an association of balloonists in Nebraska, and Jerry Mahoney of Omaha was listed as the official contact. Charlie Cook initiated the the NBC Newsletter in January, 1977 and listed eleven pilots in the first roster. The first organizational meeting of the Nebraska Balloon Club was held March 19, 1977. Charlie Cook was elected president; Jerry Mahoney, vice-president; and Bill Wemhoff, Secretary/Treasurer.
Thirty years later, the NBC membership rolls have swelled to around 100 members, including 29 pilots and four student pilots. Of the eleven pilots listed in that first newsletter, Jerry Mahoney, Charlie Cook, and Rich Jaworski are still on the club roster. In fact, Rich Jaworski continues flying under the same name and colors: “Euphoria.”
The Early History of Ballooning
In 1783, over 120 years before the Wright Brothers first flight, man lifted himself from Earth in a balloon. On November 21, 1783, in France, Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes took flight in a balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers. The envelope was made of paper, with straw burned in the middle of a large circular basket. The balloon was tied to the ground until the fire produced sufficient heat to make the system rise. The ropes were then cut, and the balloon rose until the heat was gone.
Just ten days later, Professor Jacques Charles launched the first gas balloon. His system consisted of a varnished silk envelope filled with hydrogen. Since hydrogen is lighter than air, the balloon rose.
The first manned balloon ascension in the United States took place on June 24, 1784 when 13-year old Edward Warren went aloft in a tethered hot air balloon at Bladensburg, MD The balloon had been built by Peter Carnes, a lawyer and tavern keeper from Bladensburg, based on descriptions of the Montgolfier’s experiments. The first balloon flight in this country occured on January 11, 1793, when Jean-Pierre Blanchard lifted off from the Walnut Street Prison yard in Philadelphia in an ascension witnessed by George Washington. (The prison site had been selected to keep out non-paying spectators.) Blanchard’s flight lasted 45 minutes, crossing the Delaware River and landing near present-day Deptford Township, NJ. (Read more about early balloon flights in the United States.)
An interesting side story is how the tradition of the champagne began. When balloons such as the Montgolfiers’ eventually ran out of heat, they began to fall to the ground. This uncontrolled decent often resulted in the balloonists crashing into farmers’ crops. The farmers, having never seen balloons before, would often attack the balloons (and their passengers!) with pitchforks, thinking that they were demons from the sky. The balloonists began carrying champagne along to appease the landowners and show them that they were good Frenchmen. Today, pilots often thank landowners with a bottle of champagne, saluting those make the flight possible.
The Modern Hot-Air Balloon
Photo courtesy of
BallooningHistory.com
No history of ballooning would be complete without acknowledging the contributions of Paul “Ed” Yost, inventor of the modern hot-air balloon. “Ed Yost is our Wilbur and Orville” one pilot recently observed. Ed’s contributions to all forms of ballooning: scientific, gas, and hot-air, advanced the state of the art, and contributed directly to the development of the sport of ballooning as we know it today. Ed helped found the Balloon Federation of America (BFA) and organized the first US National Ballooning Championship at Indianola, Iowa. To get a sense of how far we’ve come in such a very short time, read the report written by Ed Yost in 1963 at the conclusion of a program that resulted in the invention of the modern hot-air balloon. We Nebraska Balloon Club balloonists feel a special kinship with Ed Yost. He was born in 1919 “next door” in the north-central Iowa town of Bristow, and made the first test flight of his modern, propane-powered hot-air balloon on October 22, 1960 at the former Bruning Army Airfield (by then, named Bruning State Airport) east of Bruning, Nebraska (see photo above).
We mourn Ed’s passing in Taos, New Mexico on May 27, 2007 at the age of 87, and celebrate his many achievements each time we take flight in the balloons he invented, and which held such a special place in his life. Those wishing to learn more about Ed Yost and his amazing career, including Channel Champ, the balloon Ed designed, built, and flew across the English Channel in 1964 with Don Piccard, are invited to visit the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa.
The Physics of Ballooning
There are today, for practical purposes, two kinds of balloons: hot air balloons and gas balloons. Both rely on simple principles of physics for flight.
For a hot air balloon, as the air inside is heated it expands, making it less dense. Because there are fewer molecules per given volume, it weighs less than the non-heated ambient air. This causes the balloon to rise. The balloon rises as long as a sufficient heat differential is maintained between the air inside the balloon and the air outside the balloon. Heat is constantly being lost from the balloon by radiation, through seams, and small pores in the fabric. Thus balloons must carry fuel on board to heat the air inside. To go up, the balloonist adds heat. To go down, he allows the balloon to cool. A typical modern balloon flight lasts from 1-3 hours.
Gas balloons rely on the lifting power of helium (common in the US), hydrogen (more common in Europe), or even ammonia gas, contained within a sealed envelope. Altitude is maintained by releasing ballast (sand or water) to lighten the aircraft, or by venting gas (to decrease lift). A gas balloon flight can last as long as the ballast holds out, up to several days.
Parts of a Modern Hot Air Balloon
There are three basic parts to a modern-day hot air balloon. First is the basket. Modern day baskets, like those of 200 years ago, are made of wicker or rattan. Uncountable modern-day products have been experimented with, but none offer the combination of strength and flexibility of wicker and rattan. Baskets range in size from those which carry only one person to those which carry over 20 people. the typical hot air balloon basket will carry 2-3 average sized people on an average day. Inside the basket is where the fuel is carried. Today the fuel of choice is propane, the same type that is put into backyard gas grills. (Some pilots use butane or a propane/butane mix.) Most baskets can carry between 20 and 50 gallons of propane, stored in 10-25 gallon stainless steel or aluminum cylinders. Also inside the basket are instruments (typically an altimeter, a variometer, and pyrometer indicating a temperature reading inside the balloon), a “drop-line” (a nylon rope), and a fire extinguisher. The typical balloon basket costs between $5,000 and $12,000 new.
The second part of a hot air balloon system is the burner. It draws fuel from the cylinders in the basket and ignites it, spraying the resultant flame into the balloon. To do this, a pilot light is lit at inflation. The pilot controls the flame with a blast valve. When he opens the blast valve, the liquid fuel under pressure in the cylinders expands down the fuel hoses. The liquid enters the burner, then proceeds through a series of coils located at the base of the flame. Here, the liquid is heated from previous ignitions, and changes into a gas. The gas is then sprayed onto the pilot light, resulting in the magnificent blue flame. Pilots have the option of bypassing the coils and spraying liquid propane onto the burner. This produces a less-powerful, less compact yellow flame that results in less heat, but also in less noise. It is useful when flying over livestock that are easily scared. The system is designed with power in mind: today’s powerful burners are capable of producing 40,000,000 BTU’s per hour.
The third, and surely most visible, part of the modern balloon system is the envelope. This is the actual balloon. Typically made of rip-stop nylon or polyester (some companies, most notably The Balloon Works, are experimenting with non-rip-stop materials). The envelope can be as simple as a one color, standard balloon shape or as complex as a multi-colored Harley Davidson shape. The imagination (and the pocketbook) is about the only limit. The envelope is made of dozens of individual “panels”, sewn together. It is coated on the inside with a “glaze” to help the material retain heat. This coating is gradually worn away by the intense heat (up to 275 degrees Fahrenheit) inside the balloon, resulting in an envelope life of approximately 500 flight hours. Envelopes cannot be easily re-coated to extend their life. There is at least one “vent” in the envelope. With the help of a line extended from the vent to the basket, the pilot can open the vent, either to descend during flight or to deflate the balloon. Prices for a new envelope can range from $14,000 to over $300,000.