Hot-air ballooning, pioneered by the Montgolfier brothers in Louis XVI's France, is enjoying a resurgence.
| Talk about hot-air ballooning and the image which most readily comes to mind is a scene from the film of Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days". In mid-flight, the manservant to Phileas Fogg (played by David Niven) scoops snow from the side of the Matterhorn to ensure that the Moet is adequately chilled. The story of this race against the clock (or rather the calendar) may have created the impression that hot-air ballooning is a long-established sport. It isn't. David Niven rose only as high as a United Artists' crane could life his basket. Ballooning in hot-air balloons did not become a sport until the 1960s. |  |
During the 19th century, almost all balloons were filled with hydrogen or coal gas and were principally used for public displays, and by scientists and soldiers. Great advances were made during the American Civil War, when they were used to spy on enemy positions. In the age before aeroplanes, the rich and daring took to the air in them. C.S. Rolls of Rolls-Royce, a great ballooning enthusiast, even built a special car to retrieve his balloon. But once aircraft became airworthy, the early age of ballooning was over.
The modern sport was born in 1960 when an American engineer, Ed Yost, built a hot-air balloon from nylon fabric and heated it with propane cooking gas. It proved to be a cheap and safe craft. The essence of his invention has remained unchanged. A hot-air balloon is made to climb, fly level or descend by means of careful bursts with the burner. Sand ballast is carried only in the much less common balloons filled with hydrogen or, since the 1930s, helium.
Most balloonists fly for the simple delight of drifting over the tree tops. Many beginners expect to be frightened by the height but within minutes even the most tense relax. The tranquil beauty of a balloon flight has nothing in common with parachuting or hang-gliding. Enthusiasts claim that nobody is ever disappointed by the experience and that everybody should fly once--but with a cautious and meticulous pilot.
Balloonists love to congregate in "fiestas". The most famous is at Albuquerque, New Mexico, where several hundred balloons were flown earlier this month. Vast quantities of Budweiser beer were sunk during the gathering: the social events around hot-air ballooning have no turn-of-the-century charm.
A smaller number of pilots enjoy serious competitions more than fiestas. Most such contests involve following precise and complicated rules while flying. It is remarkable to see a cluster of balloons, guided only by their pilots' fine judgment of the winds and dexterous squirts of the burner, fly ten miles (16k) in about an hour to pass within a few feet of a goal.
For a small but elite group it is dull stuff. These devotees are much more excited by long-distance "races" flown in helium-filled balloons. The rules could not be simpler: all contestants are in balloons of the same volume, launched simultaneously. The winner is the contestant who flies furthest.
The most famous race is the "Gordon Bennett". It was started in 1906 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the publisher of the New York Herald. Not averse to creating his own news to print, he financed Stanley's search for Livingstone, and started this balloon race, which is still flown every year. Some people call it "The Formula-One of Ballooning". The comparison is inappropriate. The sport is a lot more dangerous than flying a hot-air balloon for an hour but it is tame compared to motor racing. And the equipment is neither expensive or complicated.
What is needed to win is a profound understanding of the weather and the stamina and nerve to fly over mountains and deserts in all conditions. In last year's race, Jo Starkbaum, who has won the event seven times, landed 1,138 miles from the take-off point. The Virgin Islands team, with identical opportunities flew just seven.
The construction of sports balloons is a small business compared with the construction of blimps and scientific balloons (which range from tiny weather balloons to monsters carrying astronomical telescopes). Don Cameron in England, currently the largest builder of sports balloons, has an annual turnover of only £4m ($6.3m). But he has always sewn a tight stitch and kept a tight wallet and, unlike the other enthusiasts who entered the business in the 1960s, has become a millionaire through sports balloons.
Most of the old guard's days are numbered. Up and coming competitors include Aerostar of South Dakota, a once sleepy firm which is now run by an energetic former navy pilot with business nous. Ordinary hot-air balloons have become rather a commodity and manufacturers are looking to beautiful "special shape" balloons for their profits.
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Special shapes mightily amused Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of the eponymous business magazine. He commissioned a hot-air balloon in the shape of his Normandy Chateau. It amazed balloonists as well as his diner guests with it's flat walls and square chimneys. subsequent conceits include balloons shaped as bottles, light bulbs, cola cans, blue jeans (inside leg, 30 metres) and even a towering copy of the Financial Times. |
The yearning to fly around the world in a balloon remains. Since 1979 about 20 teams have announced an ambition to do it, but none has yet succeeded. Among those now hopeful of doing it is the writer of this article. But in something more like 18 than 80 days.
--Julian Nott