Check this out it's FUN

LAST EDITED ON Feb-09-04 AT 08:26 PM (CDT)
 
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I had several emails on this so heres the scoop. Build this with a large 48" cleaners bag and 18 small birthday candles and 6 plastic soda straws. Hot air balloons are fun. I follow them in the truck, the confirmed distance record is 9 miles so far. I had one estimated distance was 15 miles but could not drive there to confirm it there was no road. One thing I have not figured out yet is I can build a hot air balloon, take it outside and it will not launch. A few days later the same balloon will launch great, the temp will be within 5 degrees from what it was the day it would not launch. It must have something to do with air pressure or humidity. On a day when its very humid the balloons will launch but not go very high up in the sky maybe only 100 ft up. I have had good launchs in the summer when its 85 degrees sometimes better launch than I get on a day when its 20 degrees outside. Sometimes the ballons hoover like something is holding them down and don't want to go up and other days they shoot straigh up like a missle and are so high up in the sky you almost can't see them. OH, almost forgot to mention the plastic bag lights up and glows in the night sky like a huge light bulb so they are very easy to see for miles in the dark. If a balloon passes within viewing distance of a highway it will cause a BIG traffic jam. The candles burn out one at a time and the light gets dim then they go out. I can't usually tell where they land in the dark. I had one fly directly into a full moon once when it burned out the moon light kept it visible then when it landed in a farmers field I recovered it. If you launch one in the day time you can see where they land. They stay inflated and come down real nice. They can not be launched is wind more than about 2 mph but when they get high in the sky they seem to get caught in some type of air stream and move along very fast. Sorry, it's free flight not CL. lol

You got WAY to much time on your hands.....

Scott(looks like fun)Riese:7

After last fall, if you did this in SoCal, you're looking at MAJOR jail-time. What a concept; F/F freestyle forest-fire-starting!!

Maybe I mis-read something . . .

ever thought of BEEFING up the power....

Put light wire ring around the bottom and a x in the middle.....soak cotton wool in metholated spirits ( or lighter fluid ) and let it go......
You can launch in all kinds of weather with MORE POWER.......

cool concept with the plastic bag tho....we make them from tissue paper..........

Up to a couple years ago, the local Chinese would launch candle powered lanterns like this on one certain night of the year (I think it was the Hungry Ghost festival in July). Thousands and thousands of them. A few of them landed on the runway of one of the airports, so the government banned the lanterns. I was dissapointed because I wanted to try them out myself - I went around to all the Chinese prayer paraphernalia shops to see if I could get my hands on a couple, but they were all gone. Did get my hands on a few "Hell banknotes", though. Was looking for the Bank of Hell credit cards, but they didn't have any. There was actually a scandal a while back because someone was selling airline tickets to Hell which were near copies of the tickets sold by a real airline.. Must've freaked people out.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-10-04 AT 08:26 AM (CDT)
 
>ever thought of BEEFING up the power....
>
>Put light wire ring around the bottom and a x in the
>middle.....soak cotton wool in mentholated spirits ( or
>lighter fluid ) and let it go......
>You can launch in all kinds of weather with MORE
>POWER.......
>
>cool concept with the plastic bag tho....we make them from
>tissue paper..........

Don't EVER do this. Yes, I have a classic British text that advocates
lofting small tin cups filled with burning spirits, but even this book says not to do it if there is any question of fire hazard or legality. It is just plain illegal and DANGEROUS.

That said, hot air balloons are WONDERFUL fun, either free flight or tethered. They are typically constructed of tissue paper and wire, with the seams bonded using a glue stick. You can build a balloon as small as three feet tall or as large as twelve feet on your kitchen counter or a hard floor in about an hour. Kits are available from Edmund Scientific (see my website below) and are highly recommended. To launch you need a burner. Burners are typically made from a piece of 7" round heating duct to serve as a chimney to direct hot air into the envelope. Simplest heat source is several cans of sterno. Much better is to adapt a small camp stove that runs on propane. You need a really strong burner for good results. I hear that turkey fryers are cheap at $40 with a very strong propane burner. I went deluxe and bought a true laboratory Meker burner from a supply house for $60. Awesome performance with a one pound propane canister from the Home depot. To launch, the balloon is filled with hot air over the burner/chimney and simply released. It will fly for some while, depending on conditions, and then settle back to earth. Better still, use a fine tether line (I use 15# Kevlar thread) and a fishing reel. Let the line pay out until the balloon starts to settle, then reel it in for another launch.

The reason I have so much technology developed and experience with this is because I have developed a highly successful event for high school students. Check out:

http://phys-advlab.physics.lsa.umich.edu/Olympiads2004/Hot%20Air%20Balloons.htm

The University of Michigan Physics department holds a Physics Olympiad competition for local schools, similar to the Science Olympiad, but strictly for physics related events. I got suckered into developing this event because of my notorious love of flying toys. The balloons are tethered and flown indoors. The task is to loft as much sand as possible to 30' altitude in fixed time window of 5 minutes. This works great, and is really fun.

If there is real interest, I can take some photos of my burner and post them here. Check out the web link for more details.

Model hot air balloons are wonderful fun, but please, never loft live fire!

Andy

Edit: Here's a direct link to the Edmund Scientific balloon kits:

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?pn=3031333

Andy

I did this when I was a kid as a school science experiment. The guy next to the shool was not pleased when the thing went up in the air of the school yard and ended up bursting into flame and landing on his roof. Yikes! Can you imagine a school nowadays if that happened? Especially in the litigious society?

Man, the things we did as kids.

I suppose you could do that here where I live in So. Ca. if your not happy with your present living arrangements. Maybe you could claim it was love letters to your X like the lady did in Colorado after the fire has been put out.

Bill

Do you suppose that all of the UFO sightings are caused by bored modelers with some dry cleaning bags and left-over birthday candles?

LAST EDITED ON Feb-10-04 AT 08:35 AM (CDT)
 
>Do you suppose that all of the UFO sightings are caused by
>bored modelers with some dry cleaning bags and left-over
>birthday candles?
>
>Jerry

One of my colleagues told me of a prank he played maybe 30 years ago while an undergrad at Caltech. Seems that there were folks who would gather in the desert at night and try and focus their Karma to get the flying saucer people to land on earth. He was using small helium-filled rubber weather balloons (also available from Edmund Scientific) to launch his research instruments. So he and some buddies drove a few miles upwind and launched several balloons with highway flares hanging from them so they floated over the gathering. And they had one of their number infiltrate the crowd to get the reaction. The best quote? "Keep love in your hearts, and maybe they'll land."

Don't loft live fire!

Andy

We flew candle-powered laundry bags after finals week at NMSU about 1970. On a cold night they fly very well and provide great entertainment, particularly with a keg of beer..

(However, I think a high-voltage bug zapper is equally good with a keg of beer. I like the welder transformer buzzing sound it makes when a moth completes the circuit. Now THAT'S good bug!)

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"Get off me, you filthy sofa!" -Arthur Dent in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

A buddy and I launched one of these out of my barracks window in Germany, back in the mid-60s. It floated over the trees and out of the Casserne. Being young and crazy, we never thought of the fire hazard!

Fred

Yep, been doing this since I was a kid. At night they look real cool and get the whole hood rawled up into an uproar. Even the dogs start barking when they see these things at night. Have not done one in about 20 years, I think I have been motivated to stir up the hood soon though.