Saturday, April 07, 2007

Balloonatic



For my sixtieth birthday last May, Katy, Rachel and Adrian gave me a balloon flight. Katy ruled out my desire to bungee jump. She found that only Virgin will take passengers over 250lb. So Branson has risen in my estimation.

Balloons must be the most weather dependent form of transport. If the wind is over about 8 mph the flight will be off. I experienced cancellations in October and March but on Good Friday afternoon the flight was on from Knebworth, Herts. Here we have the basket about to be lifted from the transport.

Hot air balloons are the oldest successful human carrying flight technology, dating back to the Montgolfier brothers' invention in Annonay, France in 1783. The first flight carrying humans was made on November 21, 1783, in Paris by Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes.

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