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Ballooning
Ballooning is one of the most attractive air acitvity for the public, media and marketing. It is dificult to
maneuver and compete with it because the pilot has to know the meteorology and global and local air flows
and wind motions because only whith them he moves through the air.
A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind.
It is distinct from an airship which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled
manner. It is also distinct from aerostat which is a balloon that is moored to the ground rather than free flying.
A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas
that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises,
taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, that carries passengers or payload.
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology, dating back to its invention by the
Montgolfier brothers in Annonay, France in 1783. The first flight carrying humans was made on November 21, 1783,
in Paris by Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes.
Balloons using the light gas hydrogen for buoyancy were flown less than a month later. They were invented by
Professor Jacques Charles and first flown on December 1, 1783. Gas balloons have greater lift and can be flown much
longer than hot air, so gas balloons dominated ballooning for the next 200 years. In the 19th century, it was common
to use town gas to fill balloons; it was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, but was much cheaper and readily available.
The third balloon type was invented by Pilâtre de Rozier and is a hybrid of a hot air and a gas balloon. Gas balloons
have an advantage of being able to fly for a long time and hot air balloons have an advantage of being able to easily
change altitude so the Rozier balloon was a hydrogen balloon with a separate hot air balloon attached.
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