Manned Flight
The first human carrying pure solar balloon flight was made on the 1st May 1973 by Tracy Barnes in his balloon 'Barnes Solar Firefly Tetrahedron'. This balloon was made from a spiral tube of fabric that was formed into a tetrahedron. Dominic Michaelis is recorded as having owned the first pure solar balloon in Europe. This balloon was flown by Julian Nott across the English Channel. Records compiled for the FAI show that on 6th February 1978 Iranian Frederick Eshoo also made a solar flight in a balloon called Sunstat. This used a standard balloon design, but used clear plastic on one side, allowing the sun's radiation to reflect off the inner surface, heating the inside air.
Today, the Brisbane Hot Air Ballooning company in Australia flies a solar balloon.
Read more about this topic: Solar Balloon
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“Fear of error which everything recalls to me at every moment of the flight of my ideas, this mania for control, makes men prefer reason’s imagination to the imagination of the senses. And yet it is always the imagination alone which is at work.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)