If you have ever been to a fair or festival, you may have seen or even been on, a hot air balloon. Hot air balloons are more often found in festivals and other outdoor party events for an obvious reason, they are really neat and entertaining to watch drift through the sky.

About the Hot Air Balloon

The hot air balloon has been around longer than any other human-carrying form of technology, that means they have been around longer than the airplane. In 1783, the first hot air balloon was set off in Paris, France. This balloon was created by the Montgolfier brothers and the ones who participated in getting inside the wicker basket, or the gondola, were two men by the names of Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and his companion Francois Laurent d’Arlandes. The bag on top of the hot air balloon, the balloon itself, is called an envelope. This envelope is filled with hot air that come from a flame underneath the opening of the envelope at the bottom.

Hot air balloons are designed so that the envelope is fire resistant, meaning it will not catch on fire so easily. This flame under the envelope heats the air inside the envelope and the air surrounding the flame. Placed below the flame is the wicker basket known as the gondola. This is where the passengers of the hot air balloon take their ride. When operating this aircraft, the pilot must know a thing or two about temperatures and how those temperatures affect the surrounding areas. This is very crucial for one to know if you operate a hot air balloon, after all, it is not called a hot air balloon for nothing!

Although not every hot air balloon has these, sandbags are another crucial part in the flying of an air balloon. Sandbags are simply just extra weight that can either be inside the gondola with the passengers or hang off the side of the basket. In most cases, the sandbags are placed on the inside. Having a sandbag on the outside and dropping it from there could be not only dangerous but could make you go a lot higher up than you expected. Many balloon pilots keep the sandbags inside, this way they can choose how much sand they let out of the bag instead of just dropping the entire bag completely. Just a small handful of sand could rise the altitude of the balloon by hundreds of feet. Down below are examples of hot air balloon tattoo designs, placement, and ideas.