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:
“The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)