What is the name of a flying ball with a basket? What is the correct name of a hot air balloon and who is its creator. From the history of aeronautics
The word "aerostat" is made up of the Greek words "aero" and "statos", "air" and "stationary". This term is used as an official scientific, technical and professional term. The phrase “balloon” is firmly rooted in the language, which also has a right to exist. However, the name “balloon” also belongs to a rubber toy, a descendant of an ancient bubble, sometimes filled with ordinary air that has no lifting force. Therefore, in relation to an aircraft, the most appropriate word is “balloon”.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. To maintain a high air temperature 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. Nowadays, instead of flammable hydrogen, safe helium is used in balloons.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 precisely in such a basket that Fyodor Konyukhov will fly on a solo trip around the 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...
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 there 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 deployed to dispatch this unusual 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, from Bristol by road it was delivered 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 him.
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 in 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 small plane that crashed in the mountains of Canada. 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 rescue operations were carried out, resulting in the rescue of 1,334 people.
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.
For 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. In them, below, necessary things, food, and water supplies are stored. 
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 different 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. 
A series of reports on the preparation of Fyodor Konyukhov's round-the-world expedition is carried out thanks to the expedition sponsor and the team's official car
The question of who invented the hot air balloon will certainly be of interest to every schoolchild. After all, this aircraft was created back in the 18th century and has stood the test of time, as it is still used in aeronautics today. Technology and materials change and improve, but the principle of operation has remained the same over the centuries. That is why turning to the personalities of those people who invented this new amazing means of transportation seems especially relevant.
short biography
The inventors were the Montgolfier brothers. They lived in the small French town of Annonay. Both were interested in science, crafts, and technology from childhood. Their father was an entrepreneur and had his own paper mill. After his death, the eldest of the brothers, Joseph-Michel, inherited it and subsequently used it for his invention.
For his scientific achievements, he subsequently became administrator of the famous Parisian Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. His younger brother Jacques-Etienne was an architect by training.
He was interested in the scientific works of the outstanding British natural scientist who discovered oxygen. This hobby led him to take part in all of his older brother's experiments.
Prerequisites
The story of who invented it must begin with an explanation of the conditions that made such an amazing discovery possible. By the second half of the 18th century, a number of important scientific discoveries had already been made, which allowed the brothers to put their own observations into practice. The discovery of oxygen has already been discussed above. In 1766, another British researcher G. Cavendish discovered hydrogen, a substance that subsequently began to be actively used in aeronautics. About ten years before the famous balloon-raising experiment, the famous French scientist A.L. Lavoisier developed a theory about the role of oxygen in oxidation processes.
Preparation
So, the story of who invented the hot air balloon is closely connected with the scientific life of the second half of the 18th century. In this case, it is important to note that such an invention was made possible thanks to the above discoveries. The brothers were not only aware of the latest scientific discoveries, but also tried to implement them.
It was this thought that prompted them to create the ball.
They had at their disposal all the necessary materials for its production: the paper factory left to them by their father provided them with paper and fabrics. At first they made large bags, filled them with hot air and launched them into the sky. The first few experiments gave them the idea of creating a large ball. At first, they filled it with steam, but when raised, this substance quickly cooled and settled in the form of water sediments on the walls of matter. Then it was decided to use hydrogen, which is known to be lighter than air.
However, this light gas quickly evaporated and escaped through the walls of matter. Even covering the ball with paper did not help, through which the gas still quickly disappeared. In addition, hydrogen was a very expensive substance, and the brothers were able to get it with great difficulty. It was necessary to look for another way to successfully complete the experiment.
Preliminary tests
When describing the activities of those who invented the balloon, it is necessary to point out the obstacles that the brothers had to face before their experiment was successfully completed. After the first two unsuccessful attempts to lift the structure into the air, Joseph-Michel proposed using hot smoke rather than hydrogen.
This option seemed successful to the brothers, since this substance was also lighter than air and, therefore, could lift the ball upward. The new experience turned out to be successful. The rumor of this success quickly spread throughout the town, and residents began to ask the brothers to conduct a public experiment.
Flight of 1783
The brothers scheduled the trial for June 5th. Both carefully prepared for this significant event. They made a ball that weighed more than 200 kilograms. It was without a basket - that indispensable attribute that we are accustomed to seeing in modern designs. A special belt and several ropes were attached to it to hold it in the desired position until the air inside the shell was heated. The Montgolfier brothers' balloon had a very impressive appearance and made a huge impression on those gathered. Its neck was placed over a fire, which heated the air. Eight assistants held him down by ropes from below. When the shell was filled with hot air, the ball rose up.
Second flight
The basket balloon was also invented by these people. However, this was preceded by the enormous resonance that the discovery of unknown researchers from a small French town had. Scientists from the Academy of Sciences became interested in this discovery. King Louis XVI himself showed such interest in the flight of the balloon that the brothers were summoned to Paris. a new flight was scheduled for September 1783. The brothers attached a willow basket to the ball and claimed that it would support the passengers. They wanted to fly themselves, but there was a heated debate in the newspapers about the great risk. Therefore, to begin with, it was decided to raise the animals in a basket. On the appointed day, September 19, the ball, in the presence of scientists, courtiers and the king, rose up along with the “passengers”: a rooster, a ram and a duck. After a short flight, the ball caught on tree branches and sank to the ground. It turned out that the animals were doing well, and then it was decided that the balloon with the basket could support a person. After some time, the world's first air flight was carried out by Jacques-Etienne and the famous French scientist, physicist and chemist Pilatre de Rozier.
Types of balls
Depending on the type of gas with which the shell is filled, it is customary to distinguish three types of these flying devices. Those that rise with the help of hot air are called hot air balloons - after the name of its creators. This is one of the most convenient and safest ways of filling matter with gas, which is lighter than air and, accordingly, can lift a basket with people in it. Different types balloons allow travelers to choose the most convenient way movement. The balloon burner is of particular importance in this design.
Its purpose is to constantly heat the air. In cases where it is necessary to lower the ball, it is necessary to open a special valve in the shell in order to cool the air. Those balls, the inside of which are filled with hydrogen, were called charliers - after another outstanding French chemist-inventor, a contemporary of the Montgolfier brothers, Jacques Charles.
Other types of devices
The merit of this researcher lies in the fact that he independently, without using the developments of his outstanding compatriots, invented his own balloon, filling it with hydrogen. However, his first experiments were unsuccessful, since hydrogen, being an explosive substance, came into contact with air and exploded. Hydrogen is an explosive substance, so its use when filling the shell of aircraft is associated with certain inconveniences.
Helium balloons are also called charliers. The molecular weight of this substance is greater than that of hydrogen, it has sufficient carrying capacity, it is harmless and safe. The only drawback of this substance is its high cost, which is why it is used for manned vehicles. Those balloons that are filled half with air and half with gases are called rosiers - after another contemporary of the Montgolfier brothers - the aforementioned Pilâtre de Rosier. He divided the shell of the ball into two parts, one of which he filled with hydrogen, the other with hot air. He tried to fly on his device, but the hydrogen caught fire, and he and his companion died. Nevertheless, the type of apparatus he invented received recognition. Balloons containing helium and air, or hydrogen, are used in modern aeronautics.
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
The birth of hot air balloons was 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.
The Montgolfier brothers' balloon consisted of a linen shell covered with paper. To fill it with hot air, a fire of finely chopped straw was lit. 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 fire function 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 balloon pilot training course 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 received data, 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.
The name of this lighter-than-air aircraft speaks for itself. A huge shell made of gas-impermeable material - rubberized fabric or plastic - is inflated either with warm air, which is known to be lighter than cold air, or with a light gas (hydrogen or helium), and the balloon rises, carrying a basket with passengers with it.
The balloon, inflated with warm air, was called a hot air balloon - after the French brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. In the summer of 1783, they built a hot air balloon, the first passengers of which were a ram and a rooster. The flight was successful. Having made sure that flights were safe, people began to fly in hot air balloons. The first such flight was made in November of the same 1783 by the French Pilatre de Rosier and d'Arland. Thus began the era of aeronautics - flights on lighter-than-air aircraft.
Since hot air balloons flew for a very short time - they sank down as soon as the air in them cooled - flying on them was only purely entertaining. For flights for practical, military and scientific purposes, balloons inflated with hydrogen or helium began to be used. For observation solar eclipse in 1887, the famous Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev flew on such a balloon.
Gradually, balloons began to be made in a variety of shapes. Therefore, the name - balloon - is outdated. Nowadays everything aircrafts lighter than air are called balloons.
In the 30s XX century several high-altitude balloons were built for research upper layers atmosphere - stratospheric balloons. So that people could stay at high altitudes for a long time and not suffer from a lack of oxygen, the stratospheric balloon gondola in which the crew was located was made airtight. Strato balloons with such cabins reached altitudes of over 20 km.
However, a free-flying balloon is a toy of the wind. It flies not where the crew wants, but where the air flow pulls it. Therefore, uncontrolled balloons have not become widespread. They were first replaced by controlled balloons - airships, and then by heavier-than-air aircraft - airplanes and helicopters. True, during the First and Second World Wars, the armies of many countries used tethered balloons connected to the ground surface with a strong steel cable as mobile observation posts, for hanging radio antennas, and as air barriers against enemy aircraft.
Currently, balloons are used in meteorology (see Meteorological technology) for launching automatic weather stations to high altitudes and for sporting purposes. Modern durable gas-tight materials, gas-burners, which make it possible to maintain a high air temperature inside the balloon for quite a long time without much hassle, made it possible to achieve high safety in such sports flights. Athletes on balloons sometimes it is possible to overcome very significant distances. So, in 1978, a successful hot air balloon flight across the Atlantic Ocean was made.