Hot Air Balloon

A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft made of a fabric envelope filled with heated air, which is less dense than the surrounding air and so gives the balloon its lift, with a gondola or wicker basket suspended beneath to carry passengers and the flame source that heats the air. It was the first successful human-carrying flight technology: Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent d'Arlandes made the first untethered manned flight in a balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers over Paris on November 21, 1783. Modern sport balloons are generally made from nylon fabric with a fire-resistant material such as Nomex near the burner, and while shapes now range from the traditional teardrop to novelty forms shaped like rockets or commercial products, the basic Montgolfier design of an open flame heating air inside an envelope remains unchanged.