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Balloon (aircraft)

#Balloons aircraft #Ballooning #Airship technology #Hydrogen technologies

1 ________ - used infrequently due to its caustic qualities and limited lift.

2 ________ obtain their buoyancy by heating the air inside the balloon.

3 For example, the ________ (which are best seen from the air) allegedly presuppose some form of manned flight, such as a balloon.

4 The ________ also made use of balloons, but they were gravely hampered by supplies due to the embargoes.

5 Eventually hydrogen gas generators, a compact system of tanks and ________ plumbing, were constructed which converted the combining of iron filings and sulfuric acid to hydrogen.

6 ________ - used in the early days of ballooning; it is highly flammable.

7 General Irvin McDowell, commander of the ________, realized their value in aerial reconnaissance and had Lowe, who at the time was using his personal balloon the Enterprise, called up to the First Battle of Bull Run.

8 Although hydrogen has more lifting power, it is explosive in an atmosphere rich in ________.

9 In the 19th century, it was common to use ________ to fill balloons; it was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, but was much cheaper and readily available.

10 The flight started in ________ and reached a height of 500 feet or so.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in 1950 former record-setting balloonist Thomas G. W. Settle was assigned to perform a nuclear test in the Aleutian islands?
  • the first airmail of the United States was a personal letter from George Washington carried on an aerial balloon flight from Philadelphia by Jean Pierre Blanchard?
  • the world's first air force, the French Aerostatic Corps, was founded in 1794 and used balloons (pictured) for reconnaissance?
  • in 1897, a Texas farmer discovered a UFO landed on his property: an airship operated by United States Army engineer Samuel Escue Tillman and inventor Amos Dolbear?
  • Jeannette Piccard piloted a hydrogen balloon to the stratosphere for Jean Piccard, likely namesake of Captain Picard of Star Trek?
  • Citoyenne Henri (illustration pictured) was only allowed to take a balloon trip with Andre-Jacques Garnerin after it was ruled that "there was no more scandal in seeing two people of different sexes ascend in a balloon than it is to see them jump into a carriage"?
  • Clayton, West Virginia, was named after a balloonist from Cincinnati who landed in the community after a record-setting 300-mile (480 km) flight in 1835?
  • balloonist Sophie Blanchard (pictured) was Napoleon's Chief Air Minister of Ballooning, and was named "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration" by Louis XVIII of France?
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    #Airships #Hydrogen technologies #Aerostats #Edwardian era