Balloon flight

“ Numerous aeronauts have also testified that, no matter how hard the wind may be blowing, the balloon is always practically in a dead calm, and if a piece of gold-leaf is thrown overboard, even in a gale, the gold-leaf and the balloon never part company in a horizontal direction, though they may in a vertical direction. ”

“ In the first place, a balloon is most certainly not what it is sometimes erroneously called—a flying machine. One might as well compare the gracefulness of a good swimmer with the aimless floating of a dead dog, as to pretend that the helpless drifting of a balloon has anything in common with the as yet only partially accomplished science of aërial flight. ”

“ The balloon is a mere lifting machine and is in no sense to be regarded as a flying machine. It resembles the flying creature only in this, that it is immersed in the ocean of air in which it sustains itself. The mode of suspension is wholly different. The balloon floats because it is lighter than the air; the flying creature floats because it extracts from the air, by the vigorous downward action of its wings, a certain amount of upward recoil. The balloon is passive; the flying creature is active. The balloon is controlled by the wind; the flying creature controls the wind. ”

“ Despite the fact that the "aviators"—the aeronauts whose efforts were directed to flight by mechanical means in imitation of birds, or by the use of what are now called aeroplanes—were in the field centuries before the balloon was invented, from the time of the first Montgolfier balloon until very recently, the balloonists had shown their rivals a clean pair of heels in practical results. ”

“ All these ascents, though they proved that the balloon had a certain utility for the exploration of the upper reaches of the atmosphere, did little or nothing for aerial navigation. The great vogue of the balloon distracted attention from the real problem of flight. That problem was not abandoned; a number of men, working independently, without any sort of public recognition, made steady advance during the whole course of the nineteenth century. By the end of the century, three years before flight was achieved, those who were most deeply concerned in the attempt knew that success was near. ”

“ This arises from the vast extent of surface which it necessarily presents, rendering it a fair conquest to every breeze that blows, and because the power which animates it is a mere lifting power, which acts in a vertical line. The balloon, consequently, rises through the air in opposition to the law of gravity, by which all flying creatures are governed, very much as a dead bird falls downward in accordance with it. ”

“ Yet, although the balloon is impracticable as a means of transportation, it should by no means be discarded, for it can be made very useful for scientific and other observations, to give pleasure to thousands of people by fanciful ascensions, and not the least, to serve, as stated before, sanitary purposes, when captive and well secured. ”

“ Generally, balloon launches of animals, which reached a maximum in 1953 when 23 balloons were released, have established the feasibility of a program of extended manned balloon flights to high altitudes. ”

“ We should never reach the end of our tale if we followed step by step the adventures of the strange and colossal traveller. Suffice it, then, to say that the drama soon became more exciting, for this immense inflated monster, which held the lives of nine passengers in its claws, threatened to burst its fragile covering. The safety-valve is hastily opened, and, unheedful of the ballast, the gas is allowed to escape. The balloon immediately falls, and its descent is so rapid as to cause the hair of the passengers' heads to stand on end, and the wind to whistle in their ears. ”

“ I said so to our aeronaut, and asked him to open the valve and let the gas escape slowly, so as to allow our balloon to sink gently to the ground.
The plain which was unfolded before our eyes seemed to me created expressly for a successful landing. Here we could descend without fearing any of those terrible accidents which threatened every descent on less propitious ground. For a balloon does not always stop when it reaches the earth; it often drags its car and knocks it with terrible rage against obstacles, as we ourselves were destined to see. ”

“ Ballooning in itself will probably never be the sport that it once was, for the coming of the swift motor-driven dirigible and the still swifter airplane has made the old wind-driven vessel a hopelessly obsolete contrivance. It is therefore all the more interesting to know that the captive balloon, developed to highest form of efficiency, gave good service in the war against Germany and made itself a reliable and valuable servant of our armies, accomplishing its mission in a particular field in which neither the airship nor the airplane was able to compete with it successfully. ”

“ In order that the structure should not be destroyed on the walls and the roof of the palace, the voyagers heaped on the fuel, and the spectators, who had gathered together from the surrounding villages, then saw this strange vessel of the air rising with rapidity to a surprising height. Such a phenomenon was so astonishing, that those who beheld it could hardly believe their own eyes; and when the balloon disappeared from view, the delight they had manifested was dashed with fear for the fate of the bold aeronauts. ”

“ The wickerwork car now
secured to the balloon was half filled with ballast and crowded with
men, whilst others hung on to the ropes and to each other in the effort
to steady it.
But they could not do much more than keep it from mounting into mid-air.
Hither and thither it swung, parting in swift haste the curious throng
that encompassed it, and dragging the men about as if they were ounce
weights. The wind seemed to be rising and the faces of the experienced
aeronauts grew graver and graver, answers to the constantly repeated
question, "Where is it likely to come down?" ”

“ Unhappily, the balloon, like the fancied inspiration of the poet, goes where the wind guides it; this every one knows; while the steam-engine, like prose, goes straight upon its road. Green and his balloon were soon overlooking Paris and all its horizon; long trails of sand, ballast that he threw over to raise himself higher, streaked the heavens with their white tracks, proving, by the time it took them to descend to the earth, the hight to which the intrepid aeronaut had mounted in a few minutes. ”

“ The parachute lay flat along the ground and beyond it the trapeze. I tossed aside my overcoat, took my position, and gave the signal to let go. As you know, the first rush upward from the earth is very sudden, and this time the balloon, when it first caught the wind, heeled violently over and was longer than usual in righting. ”

“ And I do not believe that without such previous study and experience a man is capable of succeeding with an elongated balloon, whose handling is so much more delicate. Before attempting to direct an air-ship, it is necessary to have learned in an ordinary balloon the conditions of the atmospheric medium; to have become acquainted with the caprices of the wind, now caressing and now brutal, and to have gone thoroughly into the difficulties of the ballast problem, from the triple point of view of starting, of equilibrium in the air, and of landing at the end of the trip. ”

“ Fourthly, by an octahedron of glass, heated by the sun, and of which the lower part should be allowed to penetrate the dense cold air, which, pressing up against the rarefied hot air, would raise the balloon. Fifthly, by a car of iron and a ball of magnetised iron, which the aeronaut would keep throwing up in the air, and which would attract and draw up the balloon. The wiseacre who invented these modes of flying in the air seems, some would say, to have been more in want of very strict confinement on the earth than of the freedom of the skies. ”

“ It has no movement of its own, but drifts simply at the mercy of the wind, and quite beyond control. By the discharge of ballast, or by the letting out of gas, the aeronaut can indeed cause it to rise or sink at pleasure, and sometimes when two currents of air are blowing aloft in different directions at the same time he may, by passing from one to the other, “tack” his balloon to some extent across the sky. ”

“ A moment later the gas rushed into the after-end of the bag with great force, bursting the oiled cloth of which the envelope was constructed, and the cheers had hardly died away before the horror-stricken crowd saw the great balloon collapse and come headlong to the ground, with its nineteen passengers, who included Morrell, eight engineers, five valve-tenders, two photographers with their assistants, and the aeronaut already mentioned. ”

“ Sometimes the aeronaut makes his descent by means of the parachute, a separate and distinct contrivance. If, from any cause, it appears impracticable to effect a descent from the balloon itself, the parachute may be of the greatest service to the voyager at the present day it is chiefly used to astonish the public, by showing them the spectacle of a man who, from a great elevation in the air, precipitates himself into space, not to escape dangers which threaten him in his balloon, but simply to exhibit his courage and skill. ”

“ No means have yet been found of directly steering balloons, but by allowing the gas to escape the aeronaut can descend at will, and by lightening his car of part of the ballast he carries he can ascend as readily. ”

“ According to its greater or less immersion, therefore, it ballasts or unballasts the airship. The balloon is held by its weight down to almost a fixed level over the waves, yet without danger of its being drawn into contact with them. Every extra foot of guide-rope floating means so much less weight for the balloon to lift and so much automatic remounting into the air. In this way an incessant little tugging toward and away from the waves is produced, an automatic ballasting and unballasting accomplished without loss of ballast. ”

“ The title of our introduction to aeronautics may appear ambitious to astronomers, and to those who know that the infinite space we call the heavens is for ever inaccessible to travellers from the earth; but it was not so considered by those who witnessed the ardent enthusiasm evoked at the ascension of the first balloon. No discovery, in the whole range of history, has elicited an equal degree of applause and admiration—never has the genius of man won a triumph which at first blush seemed more glorious. ”

“ Taken from a Balloon 200 Meters Above That was a sensation. We were still shooting up, up; and it was time to have recourse to effective means, to open the maneuver valve and let out a portion of our gas. It was done in a moment. The balloon began descending again, until its guide rope again dragged on the ground. There was nothing but to bring the trip to an end, because only a little sand remained in the ballast bags.
I watched my captain’s maneuvers. He who would navigate an airship should first practice landing in a spherical balloon, take my word for it. ”

“ To steer his course in a balloon, therefore, the aeronaut must so arrange that he is travelling faster or slower than the wind in which he finds himself. To travel faster, he must employ some sort of engine or motor to drive his craft onwards. To travel slower, he must trail something along the ground beneath to act as a drag.
Part of the equipment of every balloon is a long trail-rope, which, when the balloon is aloft, hangs some 300 feet below the car. The object of this rope is to break the force of the fall when the balloon comes down to the earth at the end of the voyage. ”

“ In the balloon this is easily accomplished because the principal weight, the basket with the passenger, is below the gas-filled sphere or compartment, and the balloon tends to right itself after any disturbance by the wind, much like a plummet when swayed out of its position. ”

“ It is absurd to talk of guiding balloons. How will you set about it? How is it possible that a balloon—say, for instance, like the Flesselles, whose diameter measures 120 feet—can resist and manoeuvre against opposing winds or currents of air? It would require a power equal to 400 horses for the sails of a ship to struggle on equal terms with the wind. ”

“ Should the wind be in the opposite direction, however, as only too often proves to be the case, all instruments, papers, and maps are immediately thrown over the side and the observers promptly follow suit in their parachutes, abandoning the balloon to its fate. As the balloon travels with the speed of the wind, once it is released, and the parachute of the descending observer is carried in the same direction, prompt action is vital to prevent coming to the ground in the enemy’s territory. ”

“ Then, too, there was a green pilot, but I actually craved in the worst way a chance to redeem our plane from its disgraceful conduct in the dog fight—here was the chance.
135The balloon crews already were on the job and were frantically attempting to haul the balloons down to safety. No other planes were in sight. We were the only hope of saving the day. In a few moments I saw the observer of the first balloon jump with his parachute, saw the Boche empty his fire into the huge bag and then saw the balloon burst into flames. ”

“ They were suddenly in profound repose, for—however high the wind may be, however agitated the balloon, swaying to and fro with sudden and violent action, despite the efforts of many hands that endeavour to restrain it,—no sooner do aeronauts quit their hold of earth, than, in an instant, all agitation ceases and they are in perfect stillness, without any sense of motion whatever ”