All balloons are divided into three types – Mongolfiers, Charlieres and Rosiers. The difference between them is one – the first are filled with hot air, the second – with some gas, which itself is lighter than air, and the third are a hybrid of the first two. They were named after the pioneers of aeronautics, brothers Montgolfier and Jacques Charles.
The world’s first hot air balloon was invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The world’s first human flight on an aircraft took place in 1783. Interestingly, the idea of the Montgolfier brothers was based on their erroneous belief that the burning of a mixture of straw and wool produces a special “electric smoke”, which provides lifting power.
The safest gas for filling balloons is helium, light and non-flammable. But it is expensive, and on an industrial scale it was learned to produce it relatively recently, so balloons and airships for centuries were filled mainly with explosive hydrogen. Hydrogen is now forbidden to use for these purposes, helium and other light gases are expensive, so most modern balloons are mongolfiers. They rise by heating the air, for which a simple gas burner is used.
As mentioned above, the main difference between a balloon and an airship is the absence of any engines. All it can do is fly with the wind, and its crew can only control the height of the flight, but not its direction or speed. This, however, did not prevent brave travelers to surrender to the will of the wind and embark on long journeys on the most primitive balloons.
The largest balloon in the world was designed in 2002 by the American aerospace agency NASA. The volume of its shell was 1 700 000 cubic meters, and it weighed more than 690 kilograms! This impressive thing was built for research purposes, and the balloon rose to an altitude of 49 kilometers, into the rarefied layers of the atmosphere, where it burst due to the lack of external pressure. For comparison, the volume of the average balloon is only about 2500 cubic meters, that is 680 times smaller than the “monster” designed by NASA.
In the modern world, balloons are used solely for entertainment and advertising. For the transportation of goods, unlike controlled airships, they are not considered even theoretically because of their uncontrollability.
Balloons come in different shapes, even the most extravagant, and for the sake of appearance they are sometimes made in the form of giant objects. Often such aircraft are used for advertising purposes, or participate in various competitions at balloon festivals held around the world.
Oddly enough, they are used even in such advanced science as astronautics. Balloons can help in landing probes and equipment on other planets with atmospheres. Such a system was used back in the 80s of the last century in the USSR when sending probes to Venus. And now NASA has a project to send such a balloon to Titan, where it is expected to describe circles over its surface by the will of the winds, transmitting information to Earth.
Even the smallest hole in the shell of a balloon filled with gas leads to an immediate explosion, not to a slow descent, as shown in the movies. The pressure inside the shell is very high, so the gas, rushing to one point, simply tears it apart.
