Hopper Balloon - History

History

Balloon jumping as a sport emerged in the United States not later than 1924, and in England not later than 1927. Balloon jumping really meant jumping for many enthuasists: with insufficient buoyancy to sustain flight, the balloonist actually had to use his muscles to start a balloon-assisted hop. In the United States helium was hailed as the choice lifting gas due to its fire safety, allowing the balloonists to smoke while airborne; elsewhere, hydrogen was common, but not hot air balloons.

Hopper balloons, or jumping balloons, consisting of nothing more than an air bag and a suspension sling with a primitive bench, were immediately employed by operators of large airships and stratospheric balloons as cheap tools of inspecting and repairing aircraft surfaces. The tool was especially handy, since the safest places to launch large high-altitude balloons (Stratobowl and Crosby, Minnesota iron pits) were located in remote places without real airport facilities. In one instance, the second launch of Georgy Prokofiev's ill-fated USSR-3, it took two hopper balloons to untie the tangled nets on top of the giant balloon: the first jumper fell off his bench but managed to hold on to the balloon's cables and survived.

The first modern hot air balloon was flown by Ed Yost under sponsorship by the U.S. Office of Naval Research on October 22, 1960, in Bruning, Nebraska. Since Yost's balloon had a small envelope of 31,000 cubic feet (900 m3) and a chair for the pilot, not a basket, this was arguably also the first hopper balloon ever flown since the golden age of airships in 1930s.