Airships and balloons

Airships & Balloons

Scientists discovered that gases such as hot air and hydrogen float upwards.

In 1783, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier built the first balloon to carry a basket containing people into the air. The balloon was made with paper and cloth, and the air inside the balloon was heated by a fire on the ground below.

How they fly
Modern hot air balloons are made from lightweight, airtight and fireproof synthetic fabric. The air inside the balloon is heated by burning gas, which is stored in tanks inside the basket. The burners which are attached to the basket, heat the air to about 100º C. The hot air makes the balloon go up.

To make the balloon go down, the pilot opens the vents on the top of the balloon to slowly release the warm air.

The direction of flight is controlled by the wind.

Airships were built from 1884 onwards to carry cargo and people. They were fitted with engines, a propeller and a rudder for steering.

The first airship, fitted with a steam engine was flown by Henri Giffard from Paris in 1852. The airship could only fly forward.

The most famous airships were called Zeppelins after their inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The first one was built in 1900. Zeppelins had rigid aluminum frames covered with fabric inside which were several gas-filled bags. The crew were in the gondola under the nose.

A Zeppelin: Zeppelins were used to drop bombs in World War 1.........................

In 1936 the largest airship ever built, the Hindenburg, was used to carry passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. It was 270 metres long and could carry one hundred passengers.
In 1937 the Hindenburg caught fire and the flammable hydrogen gases used to lift the airship exploded as it was docking in the United States. 37 people died in the accident.

Modern airships are filled with helium gas which does not explode. They are smaller and are used mainly for advertising or to carry cameras for aerial photography. They are sometimes called 'blimps'.

For more information about this topic, kidcyber recommends the following:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/balloon/science/history.html The history of ballooning from the Montgolfier Brothers in a timeline. It is possible to take a virtual balloon flight. (PBS television network)

If you use any of this information in your own work acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thomas & Sydenham, Airships and Balloons [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2008).

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