Balloon basket name. Balloon. How to make a balloon: basket
Main types of balloons
According to the technical solution, balloons are divided into two main types. Gas-filled balloons French professor Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles. Charles's balloon made its first unmanned flight on August 28, 1783. The first manned free flight in a gas-filled balloon took place on December 1, 1783, the pilots were Professor Charles himself and mechanic Robert. In honor of the inventor, gas-filled balloons were called charliers for some time. The shell of a gas-filled balloon was filled with hydrogen, sometimes with cheaper methane. Currently, helium is used for this type of balloon. A hot air balloon, also called a hot air balloon, is constructed differently. Hot air balloons have a shell filled with hot air or a steam-air mixture. For supporting high temperature air inside the shell, hot air balloons are equipped with burners, most often running on natural gas. The inventors of the hot air balloon are the French manufacturers brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. Fascinated by natural sciences, the Montgolfier brothers launched the first unmanned hot air balloon into the sky on June 5, 1783. On September 19 of the same year, they lifted animals in a hot air balloon. At a height of about half a kilometer there is a ram, a duck and a rooster. The flight was successful, the possibility of a person’s safe stay in the sky was proven.First manned flight
Preparing for a manned flight required the Montgolfier brothers to equip their balloon with a firebox. While the experiments were underway, Etienne Montgolfier and the young physicist Pilatre de Rozier carried out ascents in a tethered hot air balloon. On November 21, 1783, the first free manned flight of a balloon took place. On board were Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. The pilots adjusted the air temperature in the shell by throwing straw into the firebox. The flight lasted about twenty minutes and went well. Thus, priority in the invention of a manned balloon belongs to the brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier. The first people to take to the air were the physicist Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes.Rubber balloon
The rubber toy also has an inventor. In 1824, the famous English physicist Michael Faraday glued together an elastic, gas-tight shell from two plates of rubber for hydrogen research. A few decades later, it was this bubble in the sky that became the favorite toy of children. Now, instead of flammable hydrogen in balloons safe helium is used.Sergei Anashkevich writes: Flying in a hot air balloon alone, and around the world at that, is not like a walk in the park on a bicycle. Until you see with your own eyes a giant 56-meter-high balloon, a gondola stuffed with equipment, three huge trailers with 15 thousand cubes of helium and spend several days at the expedition preparation headquarters, you will not fully understand the scale of the project and the seriousness of preparations for a circumnavigation in a hot air balloon.
It's hard to imagine, isn't it, that a wicker balloon basket would cost as much as a new Rolls Roice - more than half a million dollars? But it is in such a basket that Fyodor Konyukhov will fly on a solo trip around globe. Of course, it is not wicker at all, it is crammed with electronics and modern equipment, and looks more like a bathyscaphe than a good old balloon gondola...
One day of preparation for Fyodor Konyukhov’s circumnavigation of the world in a hot air balloon
It's a winter Australian morning and we arrive at the hangar at 10am. Despite the fact that the day before the work here continued until late in the evening, both Toyota Hiluxes in which Fedor’s team travels are already at the base, the hangar gates are open and the team is all at work.
By the way, don’t be surprised by the “winter morning”. It’s summer in Russia now, warm, sunny... Here, in the west of Australia, it’s almost like in January in the Crimea: it’s quite dank, cold, low, heavy clouds are constantly hanging overhead, and the sun is almost invisible...
In fact, these are very good conditions for such an expedition, because at the altitudes where the flight will take place, it is very cold both in winter and in summer, so starting from cool weather is much more comfortable and safer for the body than from 30-degree heat. After all, literally within 20-30 minutes Fedor will rise to a height of about 5 thousand meters, where there is already a good “minus”, and such a sharp temperature change may not have a very good effect on the traveler’s body.
But let's return to our hangar. Or rather, let's go inside and see what's happening there...
2. To prepare, the team rented a large hangar from the Australian Northam flying club, in which they can store equipment and cylinders, and set up equipment regardless of the weather conditions. weather conditions, and do some training.
Since the Morton balloon was built by Cameron Balloons in Bristol, England, the company's specialists traveled with the team to Australia to complete the final installation of all components of the balloon and gondola, set up numerous equipment and provide comprehensive support to the pilot during preparation. 
3. The entire hangar is filled with pallets, cylinders, boxes and boxes with all kinds of equipment, technical components that arrive and arrive daily. Something is pre-ordered and delivered from all over the world, something is looked for and bought on the spot, wandering all over the area and to Perth, something they make themselves... 
4. On the wall with notes I saw an unusual infographic of a future trip, drawn by Fedor’s grandson.
After the start, such things need to be taken into the home archive... Someday they will fetch a very high price at auction 
5. One of the leading Cameron Balloons specialists, Pete Johnson, who designed and built the burner, as well as the entire air mixture heating control system for the balloon shell, Morton is also at the team’s Australian base and is completing calculations for the placement of cylinders around the gondola 
6. I managed to glimpse out of the corner of my eye what she would look like.
Along with the balloon and gondola, 35 huge propane cylinders will fly, which will heat the air under the balloon, preventing it from sinking down or providing additional heat to rise upward.
The team calculated that 22-25 cylinders are needed for the flight, another 5 cylinders are needed to constantly maintain a minimum flame in the burners (after all, it will be very difficult to ignite them in rarefied conditions and at low temperatures). The remaining cylinders are a reserve in case of various emergency situations: gas was released from a working cylinder, the flight duration increased, a filled cylinder was cut off by mistake, etc. 
6. These are the propane cylinders themselves. Each of them is above human post 
7. But not only gas cylinders will go into the sky with the balloon.
There will also be a huge oxygen tank on board. The fact is that not a single person can survive 2 weeks at extreme altitudes without additional oxygen, so Fedor will constantly have to breathe with a mask with a special oxygen mixture during the flight. Much like combat fighter pilots and Everest conquerors.
But that's not all the gas... 
8. The main volume of gas is still located behind the team’s hangar, in three huge car trailers in such multi-meter cylinders. 6 on each trailer. This is the helium with which the shell of the Morton balloon will be filled before the launch. There are 15 thousand cubic meters of gas here!!! By the way, its cost is almost 250 thousand dollars! 
9. Ask, where is the ball itself? The gondola was seen, gas, helium and oxygen were seen, but the shell was not seen. It's still in this container, to the right of the gray Hilux. The shell is the most valuable thing and is protected from any outside influence. They will take it out just before the launch, lay it out on the airfield and immediately inflate it to minimize contact with the ground. The fact is that it is quite fragile and any damage on the ground can lead to the fact that during the flight helium will begin to escape through the damage and then the expedition may fail. 
10. On the right is Oscar Konyukhov, Fyodor’s son and head of the expeditionary headquarters. Together with a second Cameron Balloons technician, they discuss future launch strategy by studying meteorologists' forecasts. Now their task is to find a weather window for launch. Previously, it was planned for today, June 25, but then it shifted. For now, the start is planned for July 1. 
11. And here is the pilot himself at the base. Fedor, like the team, is at the base all day, studying the operation of the equipment and undergoing dozens of instructions. This includes controlling the balloon, radio exchange with air traffic controllers, working with air flows, and even banal photo and video shooting during the flight. Here on earth, it seems that everything is clear. And there, at an altitude of 5-10 thousand, in constant cold, with oxygen starvation, in thick warm overalls, wearing gloves... 
12. Konyukhov spends almost all his time in the gondola. In the next 2 weeks it will become his home. He doesn’t allow almost anyone inside; the price of any accident due to carelessness or ignorance of the guest is too high. 
13. Pete has completed the layout of the cylinders and is now telling Fedor and Oscar how it will all look in reality and according to what scheme Fedor will need to connect new cylinders after the gas in the previous ones runs out. 
14. Then they move on to emergency measures to ignite the burners if suddenly one of them goes out.
At an altitude of 5-10 km, at -50 and strong winds, you cannot bring a match to light the gas.
Almost a dozen different devices will be taken on the flight to solve this problem, because... if the gas does not burn, the ball will not be able to fly and will fall down.
This... yes, yes, a lighter. Only flint. A spark can be struck from flint under any conditions. 
15. This is how it works. 
16. This is another spark-making device 
17. This is what Fedor’s food will look like during the flight. The team ordered special expedition food, which is taken with them, for example, by the conquerors of Everest. The main thing is small volume, high energy and ease of preparation, because Fedor will not have a kitchen at its best 
18. The overalls that Konyukhov will wear during the flight. In it he set a record for being in the air in an open cockpit, which I talked about in the last post, in which he climbed Everest... 
20. The Australian winter is very unpredictable... After lunch, the sun suddenly appears and the gondola is rolled out onto the street with the help of a Toyota Hilux. They bring it here solar panels, which will also go to the sky to charge them while there is sun 
21. Chief controller of the team. Always checks on everyone to see who is doing what and what they are doing... 
22. They brought sand for ballast. 
23. With the help of these multi-ton bags, the balloon gondola will be held during the filling of the shell, so that it does not rise into the sky ahead of time. 
24. After lunch, training begins on moving Fedor along the roof of the cabin during the flight and working with cylinders. Every time the gas in the next cylinder runs out, Konyukhov will have to climb to the roof, remove the reducer from the empty cylinder and put it on the full one. To prevent the system from going out at this time, there are two circuits in it that operate independently. When the gas in the cylinder runs out in one circuit, the cylinder in the other circuit is half full at that time. Those. always one cylinder is full, the second is half full. Half ends, the second is just half. You connect the full one, the next time it runs out in another, half will remain here... And so on until the end of the flight. 
25. Moving on the roof only with a safety belt.
Used balloons will be cut off to make the balloon lighter. They are cut only over the ocean. When the balloon flies over land, it is prohibited to cut off the cylinders in order to avoid you know what... 
26. Coffee break.. 
27. Portable GPS navigators have arrived. They will duplicate the operation of the on-board system just in case. Fedor studies the menu and functions 
28. At the very end of the day, work on everyday issues. One of important points in flight - getting warm water for tea and heating food... Of course, you won’t be able to get boiling water, but heating water from the stove is quite possible. 
29. Well, the traditional burner test completes the program of the day. Pete drives up the team's Hilux pickup truck, which is indispensable in this process, and connects the cylinders to the system. 
30. In the sky they will be attached to a gondola, but for now they are working from the back of a Toyota Hilux, the official vehicle of the expedition. 
31. At sunset it all looks amazingly beautiful 
32. Turn on the burners! 
33. And with a roar, tongues of flame soar into the sky. The sky is such that you won’t even understand where the gas is burning and where the sky itself is 
34.
35.
36. After half an hour of testing and working out algorithms for working with gas, the gondola is rolled back into the hangar...
The day's program is completed for today 
37. Well, the evening ends in the house where the expeditionary headquarters is based.
Fragrant barbecue, kangaroo and lamb steaks, great company and delicious Australian beer...
And tomorrow morning back to the hangar 
The gondola of the Morton balloon, on which Konyukhov will fly, was designed and manufactured specifically for this project in Bristol, England. It is both a cabin for controlling the flight of the ball and residential building for Fedor, and a lifeboat with full autonomy for up to 7 days. Here is a navigation room, a place to sleep, a stove on which you can warm up food, this is the minimum of amenities that a pilot has in a gondola. It took almost a year to manufacture and fully equip the gondola, and the cost exceeded 500 thousand dollars.
An international express delivery network was used to dispatch such a unique and fragile cargo from Bristol. The route was designed specifically taking into account the oversized dimensions of the gondola so that only the most large planes DHL, allowing you to load and safely transport such non-standard cargo. First, it was delivered from Bristol by road to the East Midlands, then by plane it followed the route: Bristol - Leipzig - Bangkok - Singapore - Sydney, and then from Sydney the official expedition vehicle, a Toyota Hilux, delivered the gondola to the team's base in Northam.
Below you can see what this technological basket looks like inside...
2. The gondola is made of ultra-strong and lightweight carbon fiber and has dimensions of 2x2.2x1.6 m. You can enter the gondola through a hatch located on the roof, which also serves as an observation window.
Two keels are installed under the bottom of the gondola to maintain buoyancy in case of a forced landing in the ocean. Inside, the gondola resembles a lifeboat compartment with an autonomy of up to 7 days. 
3. As such, the gondola does not have front or rear parts. But conditionally they can be defined as follows: where all the navigation equipment is located - the front part, and where the life support systems are located - the rear part.
The navigator's place looks impressive. The entire front panel is filled with displays, instruments and control toggle switches.
The center console has a large multifunction navigator display 
4. Navigation table and logbook on it.
Navigation equipment and radio communications are similar to those installed in the aircraft cockpit. Without them, it would be impossible to obtain permission to take off and fly into the active air traffic zone. 
5. The gondola is equipped with an autopilot. What does this mean, you ask, since a hot air balloon does not have wings, an elevator, or any rudder at all? The task of the autopilot is to maintain the ball in a given altitude range, preventing it from leaving the air flow.
This is done by controlling the burners. When necessary, the air under the balloon shell is heated, and when necessary, part of the warm air is released. 
6. Work notes of Fedor Konyukhov for radio exchange with air traffic controllers. The letters here are called not as we are used to, but according to the first sounds in English words: A - Alpha, B - Bravo, etc... Moreover, these words are clearly defined and used by air traffic controllers around the world. 
7. There is also an SOS button for the COSPAS-SARSAT global rescue system
This is an international satellite system, which is one of the main parts of the global maritime distress rescue system and is designed to detect and determine the location of ships, aircraft, and other objects that have suffered an accident.
It functions as follows. A buoy of this system is purchased, which, in fact, is a kind of “insurance policy”.
Its cost is quite high, which allows the rescue system to accumulate very large sums, which are used, if necessary, to organize a rescue operation. Sometimes such operations cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The first practical case of saving people using the system occurred on September 10, 1982, still at the stage of testing the technical means of the system, when the Soviet satellite Kosmos-1383 relayed a distress signal from a crashed satellite in the mountains of Canada small plane. The emergency signal via satellite was received by a Canadian ground station. As a result of the rescue operation, three people were saved. At the beginning of 2002, more than 10,000 people were rescued using the COSPAS-SARSAT system. In 1998 alone, 385 were produced. rescue operations, as a result of which 1,334 people were rescued.
The number of rescue modules-buoys sold per this moment exceeds 1 million 
8. Control of the cabin life support system. It is equipped with a stove, because... at an altitude of 5-10 km, at which the flight will take place for 2 weeks, it is very cold. No down jacket will save you, so you need to heat the air in the cabin.
By technical reasons the cabin cannot be made hermetically sealed, like an airplane cabin, so that it would be comfortable to stay in for the entire two weeks of the flight.
The fact is that during the flight, Fedor will have to climb to the top of the gondola more than once to work with the burners, unfasten the empty gas cylinders and switch the gas supply hoses from empty cylinders to full ones. 
9. The alarm clock that Fyodor had on his boat when he sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
10. Work notes... They will be useful there, in the sky, during the expedition 
11. The rear part of the gondola, also known as the household part. Pockets for small items, heating pipes through which warm air will circulate 
12.
13. The internal volume is not as big as it might seem. There is a navigation panel in the front, lockers on the sides, which also serve as a sleeping area. Necessary things, food, and water supplies are stored in them below. 
14. Upper part of the gondola. It is no less technologically advanced than the internal one. This is a system of burners that must work flawlessly during the entire flight at extreme altitudes and extreme temperatures. 
15. Gondola suspension. Steel cables are passed through the carbon body all the way through. 
16. The outer part of the stove. 
17. Entry point for cables coming from external navigation equipment. 
18. Burners from below during test starts. 
19. GPS transmitters are located about a meter from the gondola on the outer booms. Several GoPro cameras will also be mounted here, powered on a permanent basis. Control from the gondola using a remote control. If you turn it on for continuous recording, the memory card won't last long... 
20. OKO telemetry module, which will monitor Fedor’s flight.
This unique device was designed by engineers of the Russian Technical Society, which is one of the technological partners in the preparation of Fyodor Konyukhov’s round-the-world flight in a Morton balloon.
The device is a cube 17x17x17 cm. It is equipped with an on-board computer that will record flight characteristics and parameters: flight altitude, atmospheric pressure, GPS/GLONASS coordinates, gondola movement speed, flight direction, ambient temperature, acceleration, roll, light level, radiation level, etc. In total, the module will monitor more than 20 various parameters. In addition, the device has a built-in photo-video camera that will take 1 photo every 2 minutes during the two-week flight. Autonomous power supply using solar panels. 
21. Every evening for a week, the expedition Toyota Hilux rolls out a trailer with a gondola from the hangar for Fedor Konyukhov to practice his skills in working with burners. In the evening light it looks very beautiful! 
22. During the flight, Fedor will have to constantly wear warm overalls and use an oxygen mask to breathe. A huge oxygen tank will also be located in the gondola. 
The hot air balloon has neither motors nor the usual rudder. From the entire technological arsenal - only burners, sandbags and a special valve in the upper part of the dome for air etching. How to control this aircraft?
From the history of aeronautics
Birth balloons became the first real embodiment of mankind's age-old dream of conquering the fifth ocean. In 1306, the French missionary Bassu first described how, while in China, he witnessed the flight of a hot air balloon during the accession of Emperor Pho Kien to the throne.
However, the birthplace of aeronautics is considered to be the French town of Annoney, where on June 5, 1783, the brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier lifted into the sky a spherical balloon they created, filled with heated air.
The flight of the aircraft, weighing about 155 kg and with a diameter of 3.5 meters, lasted only 10 minutes. During this time, he covered about a kilometer at a 300-meter altitude, which was an outstanding event for its time. Later, hot air balloons began to be called hot air balloons in honor of their creators.
Balloon Montgolfier brothers consisted of a linen shell covered with paper. To fill it with hot air, a fire was lit from finely chopped straw. And 3 months later, an addition was made to the design of the aircraft in the form of a special basket for passengers.
Modern balloons are undoubtedly more advanced, but they are made according to almost the same design. To make the spherical shell of the ball, a special thin and durable polyester material is used. The air heating system has changed. The function of the fire is performed by an adjustable propane gas burner installed in a basket directly under the dome.
Despite their greater dependence on the wind, modern hot air balloons are controllable. The flight altitude is adjusted by an outlet at the top of the canopy using a rip cord. A side valve is provided to change the course. There are also more complex designs, where another one filled with helium can be placed inside the main dome.
How to control a hot air balloon with a basket
Flying a balloon is an activity that requires serious preparation and considerable financial costs. Suffice it to say that a training course for a balloon pilot today costs about 200 thousand rubles. The price of the balloon itself (depending on the model) is comparable to the price of a passenger car.
Preparation
The flight is preceded by careful preparation. First of all, it is necessary to study the weather conditions - cloudiness, visibility and wind speed. In accordance with the data received, the flight route is planned. Due to unforeseen changes in weather conditions, a route is chosen where there are enough places along the way for safe landings.
Takeoff
It takes the entire crew to make the balloon take off. The best place to start is a flat area 50 x 50 meters in an open field, where there are no foreign objects nearby - poles, trees, power lines.
Then the assembly of the ball begins: burners are attached to the basket, which are connected by special hoses to gas cylinders. After a test run of the burner, the crew begins to stretch the canopy (necessarily in the direction of the wind). Next, the stretched canopy is fastened to the basket with special carabiners.
The next step is to fill the dome with cold air using a fan, after which the burner starts to heat the air. The heated air lifts the dome from the ground, and the crew (with passengers) takes their places. To prevent the ball from flying away, it is first tied to the car.
Flight
Despite the lack of a motor and wings, the balloon is controllable, which requires certain skills. The main controls are the burners and the exhaust valve. To gain altitude, the burner is turned on and the air is additionally heated, and to decrease, the valve opens slightly. Horizontal flight occurs due to a tailwind. This is where the pilot's skill comes into play. So, to fly faster, it can increase its flight altitude, where the wind speed is stronger.
Descent
The landing site is selected in advance. It must be large and safe. The ideal option is a football field next to the highway. The crew radios to the ground about the landing site. Next, the pilot releases air from the canopy using a valve. The ball smoothly falls to the ground.