Revolutionary Hot Air Balloon Evelope reduces engery consumtion by half - Festo has done it yet again.

© Festo

A Hot Air Balloon looses a lot of its lift by the heat that radiates out of the envelope. This heat loss has to be counter acted by reheating the air inside the envelope. So how could a hot air balloon made more energy efficient and the reheating reduced? By insulating the envelope so that it doesn't loose so much heat and that is exactly what Festo has done. The company that is known for its AirJelly and AirRay lighter than air projects continues to innovate. Festo has build a hot air balloon that uses up to 70% less energy than a comparable traditional hot air balloon. This is achieved with a new material that sits on the inside of the balloon envelope. This aerofabríx® insulation not only reduces heat loss it also extends the life of the envelope by reducing the heat of the outer envelope layer. Check out the whitepapers below for the full detail, more information and additional pictures. I could imagine that this new envelope material would be of great use for Dan Nachbars Personal Blimp as well as the Gefa Flug hot air airships.

Insulated Balloon - Upload a Document to Scribd

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Insulated hot - air balloon A hot - air balloon with fuel consumption reduced by half Innovative insulation sets standards in energy efficiency for balloons Volume - specific buoyancy (kg / m²) 0.40 +50 % 0.30 -50 % with 3.5 mm insulation without insulation 0.20 0.10 0.00 200 surface - specific heat output (W / m²) 300 400 500 600 700 800 Flock insulator Results of measurements on the model balloon (volume: 30 m3) Conveying five persons in a hot-air balloon for one hour consumes around the same amount of fuel as an economical passenger car during a drive from Berlin to Barcelona. Thanks to an innovative ultra - light membrane flock insulating material, the fuel consumption of a balloon can be reduced by more than 50 %, or its carrying capacity can be correspondingly increased for the same consumption rate. Insulated hot - air balloon, which was manufactured for Festo, is the world’s first balloon to include this new insulating material, which allows the number of fuel cylinders to be reduced and additional passengers to be transported. At the same time, the thermal load on the balloon material is reduced and its service life thereby extended. In the development project HeiDAS (hot-steam aerostat) by Festo, steam was used instead of hot air to fill the balloon. Steam has twice the load-bearing capacity of air; however, it necessitates insulation to prevent condensation from forming on the interior of the balloon envelope. For this purpose, flock insulation is bonded to a light but sensitive carrier foil that was first produced on commission from Festo in 2003. The membrane flock insulating material was further developed and applied to the insulated steam balloon. A new ultralight metallised base fabric transforms the foil into an insulating material suitable for everyday use in balloons. The innovative membrane flock insulating material provides the layer of air required for insulation by means of vertically oriented raised fibres on the base membrane. This membrane with its spacing elements is known as the spacing layer. The gap is closed by a covering layer. The insulting effect is determined by the width of this space, the flock pattern and the surface characteristics of the spacing and covering layers. The outer layer of the balloon envelope itself provides the insulation. The membrane flock insulating material is extremely light, highly reflective, mildly heat - reflective, temperature - resistant, compressible, readily adaptable to individual requirements and easily optimised by means of adjusting the spacing gap and the number of layers. High compressibility is a fundamental requirement, since balloons are packed and transported after a flight. Simulations and measurements carried out with test balloons have provided for initial insulation optimization and savings estimates. Subsequent measurements on the test balloons have confirmed that fuel consumption is reduced by half for a given buoyant force, or carrying capacity is considerably increased for a given quantity of fuel. 2 Insulated hot - air balloon in the air The lightweight insulation is situated on the interior of the envelope, where it is protected against the adverse effects of everyday handling; this insulation in turn protects the load bearing envelope against the effects of high temperatures. Higher temperatures than usual are encountered on the inner surface of the insulating material, while the cooler exterior of the envelope hardly radiates any heat. To test this technology in practice, the engineers from UltraMagic and the Technical University of Berlin undertook trials using a first manned and insulated test balloon with a volume of 1.600 m3, under various conditions for a period of six months. This prototype completed about 100 hours of operation, during which it attained consumption savings of more than 70 % and confirmed the material’s durability. With increasing size, the ratio of a balloon’s surface area to its volume decreases. At the same time, the internal pressure on the insulating material increases and reduces the insulating gap between the envelope layers. These effects could impair the function of the insulation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the aerofabríx® insulation in the new Festo insulated hot - air balloon, a special race was staged: fuel consumption was measured in a direct comparison with an uninsulated balloon of the same volume and with the same load. After 40 minutes of operation, the conventional balloon had used 37.2 kg of Thermographic images without insulation (left, approx. 55° C) and with insulation (right, approx. 40° C) of model balloons with 30 m3 volume and identical load-bearing capacity propane – the contents of several tank cylinders. The insulated hot air balloon, by contrast, had consumed less than 11 kg – in other words 30 % of the fuel required by the conventional balloon; this represents a drastic improvement in energy efficiency. The insulated hot - air balloon shows what innovations are possible in lighter - than - air aviation. Festo manufactures energy - efficient products and advises its customers as to how energy can be put to even more efficient use in automation. With the insulated hot air balloon insulated balloon envelope, it will be possible to make balloon travel 50 % more efficient in future. 3 Technical data Balloontype: Volume: Envelope weight: Passengers: Fabric insulation: Thickness: Specific weight: Thermal conductivity: U value (6 mm): Max. operating temperature: M - 105 3000 m3 158 kg 4–5 aerofabríx® [Iso] 45 | 4.5 6 mm 45 g / m2 0,0265 W / mK 4,5 W / m2K 140° C Project partners Project initiator: Dr. Wilfried Stoll, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Festo AG Project manager: Dipl. - Ing. (FH) Markus Fischer, Corporate Design Festo AG & Co. KG Envelope concept and manufacture: Josep Maria Lladó Costa, UltraMagic S.A., Igualada, Spain Material development and manufacture: Dr. - Ing. Alexander Bormann, Dipl. - Ing. Stefan Skutnik, Milan Habovcik, German Aerospace Centre (ILR), Technical University of Berlin, Germany Christian Gebhardt, aeroíx, Berlin, Germany Thermographic images and laboratory tests: Ilka Rudolph, Martin Wähmer, Maik Scheel German Aerospace Centre (ILR), Technical University of Berlin, Germany Flock technology consultants: Prof. Chokri Sherif, Birgit Mrozik Institute of Fibre and Apparel Technology (ITB), Technical University of Dresden, Germany Joachim Müller, Engineer’s office for flock technology, Büdingen, Germany Balloon operator for Festo: Rien Jurg Promotions BV, Hengelo, The Netherlands Further support and consultation: Prof. Jürgen Thorbeck, German Aerospace Centre (ILR), Technical University of Berlin Yousif Abdel Gadir, aerarium e.V., Berlin, Germany Photos: Walter Fogel, Angelbachtal, Germany Festo AG & Co. KG Corporate Design Rechbergstraße 3 73770 Denkendorf www.festo.com / ballooning Phone +49 / 7 11 / 347 - 38 80 Fax +49 / 7 11 / 347 - 38 99 fish@de.festo.com Brand designation: aerofabríx® is a brand of Dr. - Ing. Alexander Bormann, Berlin, Germany 53342 EN

Isolierter Ballon - Upload a Document to Scribd

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Isolierter Heißluft - Ballon Ein Heißluft - Ballon mit halbiertem Brennstoffverbrauch Innovative Isolation setzt Maßstab bei der Energie - Effizienz von Ballonen Volumenspezifischer Auftrieb (kg/m2) 0,40 +50 % 0,30 -50 % mit 3,5 mm Isolation ohne Isolation 0,20 0,10 0,00 200 Oberflächenspezifische Heizleistung (W/m2) 300 400 500 600 700 800 Membran-Flock-Dämmstoff Ergebnisse der Messungen am Modellballon mit 30 m3 Um im Heißluftballon mit fünf Personen eine Stunde in der Luft zu schweben, wird etwa so viel Brennstoff verbrannt, wie ein sparsames Auto für die Fahrt von Berlin nach Barcelona benötigt. Mit Hilfe eines innovativen, ultraleichten Membran - Flock Dämmstoffs kann nun der Verbrauch des Heißluftballons um mehr als 50 % gesenkt bzw. dessen Tragkraft bei gleichem Verbrauch entsprechend gesteigert werden. Der isolierte Heißluft - Ballon, der für Festo gebaut wurde, ist der weltweit erste Ballon, der mit dieser neuen Isolation ausgeliefert wird. Die Isolation ermöglicht die Reduzierung der Anzahl von Brennstoffzylindern und die Mitnahme von zusätzlichen Passagieren. Gleichzeitig reduziert sich die thermische Beanspruchung der tragenden Ballonhülle, was die Lebensdauer der Hülle verlängert. Im Entwicklungs - Projekt HeiDAS (Heißdampfaerostat) von Festo, wurde anstelle von Heißluft im Ballon Wasserdampf verwendet. Dieser besitzt die doppelte Tragkraft, erfordert aber eine Isolation, um die Kondensation des Dampfes im Traggasbehälter zu vermeiden. Dafür wurde 2003 im Auftrag von Festo erstmals die Flockisolation auf leichter, aber empfindlicher Trägerfolie produziert. Der Membran-Flock-Dämmstoff wurde weiterentwickelt und auf den isolierten Heißluft-Ballon übertragen. Ein neues ultraleichtes, metallisiertes Trägergewebe macht nun aus der Folienisolation einen alltagstauglichen Ballondämmstoff. Beim innovativen Membran - Flock - Dämmstoff wird die für die Dämmwirkung erforderliche Luftschicht durch senkrecht auf der Trägermembran stehende, aufgeflockte Fasern gewährleistet. Die Trägermembran mit Abstandshaltern wird Abstandslage genannt. Der Spalt wird durch eine Decklage geschlossen. Der Abstand, das Flockmuster und die Oberflächeneigenschaften von Abstandslage und Decklage definieren die Isolationswirkung. Bei der Ballonisolation stellt die äußere Ballonhülle selbst die Decklage dar. Der Membran - Flock - Dämmstoff ist extrem leicht, hoch reflektierend, gering wärmeabstrahlend, temperaturbeständig, komprimierbar, leicht konfektionierbar und durch Spaltabstand und Lagenanzahl einfach optimierbar. Hohe Komprimierbarkeit ist eine grundlegende Forderung, da Ballone nach dem Flug verpackt und transportiert werden. Simulation und Messungen an Versuchsballonen erlaubten eine Voroptimierung der Isolation und die Abschätzung der Einsparung. Die nachfolgenden Messungen an Versuchsballonen bestätigten eine Halbierung des Verbrauchs bei gleich bleibendem Auftrieb bzw. eine deutliche Steigerung der Tragkraft bei gleichem Verbrauch. 2 Isolierter Heißluft - Ballon in der Luft Die leichte Isolation wird an der Innenseite des Ballons angebracht, womit sie vor den rauen Einwirkungen beim Handling des Ballons geschützt ist und ihrerseits nun die tragende Hülle vor hohen Temperaturen schützt. Dabei treten an der Innenseite der Isolation durchaus höhere Temperaturen als üblich auf, die kühlere Außenseite der Hülle strahlt kaum noch Wärme ab. Um die neue Technologie in der Praxis zu erproben, testeten die Ingenieure von UltraMagic und der Technischen Universität Berlin sechs Monate lang einen ersten bemannten und isolierten 1600 Kubikmeter großen Versuchsballon unter verschiedenen Einsatzbedingungen. Dieser Prototyp absolvierte etwa 100 Flugstunden, erreichte Verbrauchseinsparungen von über 70 % und bestätigt die Haltbarkeit des Materials. Mit zunehmender Größe verringert sich das Verhältnis von Oberfläche zu Volumen der Ballone. Gleichzeitig steigt der Innendruck auf die Isolation und presst den isolierenden Spalt weiter zusammen. Diese Effekte könnten den Vorteil der Isolation schmälern. Um die Wirksamkeit der aerofabríx® Isolation beim neuen isolierten Heißluft - Ballon von Festo zu demonstrieren, fand eine Wettfahrt der besonderen Art statt: parallel zu einem nicht isolierten Ballon mit gleichem Volumen und gleicher Beladung galt es, den Verbrauch im direkten Vergleich zu bestimmen. Nach 40 Minuten Fahrzeit verbrauchte der konventionelle Ballon mit 37,2 kg Propan den Inhalt aus mehreren Tankzylindern. Thermografieaufnahmen ohne Isolierung (links, ca. 55° C) und mit Isolierung (rechts, ca. 40° C) an Modellballonen mit 30 m3 Volumen bei gleicher Tragkraft Der isolierte Heißluft-Ballon begnügte sich hingegen mit weniger als 11 kg und benötigte somit nur 30 % des Brennstoffs im Vergleich zum konventionellen Ballon; eine extreme Verbesserung der Energie-Effizienz. Der isolierte Heißluft - Ballon zeigt, welche Innovationen in der Leichter-als-Luft-Luftfahrt möglich sind. Festo stellt energieeffiziente Produkte her und berät seine Kunden, wie die Energie in der Automation noch effizienter genutzt werden kann. Mit der isolierten Ballonhülle ist es in Zukunft möglich, das Ballonfahren um 50 % effizienter zu betreiben. 3 Technische Daten Ballontyp: Volumen: Hüllengewicht: Passagiere: Stoffisolation: Lagendicke: Flächengewicht: Wärmeleitfähigkeit: U-Wert (6 mm): max. Einsatztemperatur: M - 105 3000 m3 158 kg 4–5 aerofabríx® [Iso] 45 | 4.5 6 mm 45 g / m2 0,0265 W / mK 4,5 W / m2K 140° C Projektbeteiligte Projektinitiator: Dr. Wilfried Stoll, Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Festo AG Projektleiter: Dipl. - Ing. (FH) Markus Fischer, Corporate Design Festo AG & Co. KG Hüllenkonzept und Fertigung: Josep Maria Lladó Costa, UltraMagic S.A., Igualada, Spanien Materialentwicklung und Fertigung: Dr. - Ing. Alexander Bormann, Dipl. - Ing. Stefan Skutnik, Milan Habovcik, Institut für Luft - und Raumfahrt, Technische Universität Berlin Christian Gebhardt, aeroíx, Berlin Thermografieaufnahmen und Laborversuche: Ilka Rudolph, Martin Wähmer, Maik Scheel, Institut für Luft - und Raumfahrt, Technische Universität Berlin Flock-Technologieberatung: Prof. Chokri Sherif, Birgit Mrozik, Institut für Textil- und Bekleidungstechnik, Technische Universität Dresden Joachim Müller, Ingenieurbüro für Flocktechnologie, Büdingen Betrieb der Ballone für Festo: Rien Jurg Promotions BV, Hengelo, Niederlande Weitere Unterstützung und Beratung: Prof. Jürgen Thorbeck, Institut für Luft - und Raumfahrt, Technische Universität Berlin Yousif Abdel Gadir, aerarium e.V., Berlin Fotos: Walter Fogel, Angelbachtal Marken: aerofabríx® ist eine Marke von Dr. - Ing. Alexander Bormann, Berlin Festo AG & Co. KG Corporate Design Rechbergstraße 3 73770 Denkendorf www.festo.com / de / ballooning Telefon 07 11 / 347 - 38 80 Telefax 07 11 / 347 - 38 99 fish@de.festo.com 53341 GE

Brazil priest carried away by balloons

© The Associated Press

Daveg from the Airship-List pointed out a news story about a Brazilian priest that wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to fund a spiritual rest stop for truckers in Paranagua, home to Brazil's largest grain port. The Associated Press reports in their story that the priest after 8 hours of flight and loosing contact to the authorities. He was equipped with GPS and a satellite phone and there is still hope to find him. He started his flight on Sunday April 20th. AP also featured this video on YouTube showing the priest flying away with hundreds of helium balloons.

Priest Goes Missing During Balloon Flight

To read more about the story go to Google News for the Full Coverage.

A personal Blimp goes Cartoon and XLTA roundup

Dan Nachbar one of the creators of the Personal Blimp and organizer of the XLTA must have been stoked when he had seen this issue of the Comic Rose is Rose. The Blimp seen in the last picture looks extremely similar to his very own Skyacht.

Todd from the Airship-List had found the comic strip first and I really would like to thank him for the find. Check out Dan Nachbars Personal Blimp page for pictures of the Skyacht and compare yourself.
I had previously mentioned the XLTA, which was held from June 1-3, 2007, if you read the Blog you must have gotten the announcement for it. Dan just provided me with some more information on what has been going on. Dan reported that there was a total of 19 aircrafts and 50 pilots and crew participated from 11 states and Washington DC. 2 group flights were made Saturday and Sunday morning. The afternoon flights had to be canceled due to thunderstorms. After the winds calmed down, Keith Sproul gave tethered hopper rides during the evenings. The Alberto ship built by Dan Nachbar and Mike Kuehlmuss flew for the attendees on Saturday morning and in the afternoons there were informal workshops covering topics like "open source" balloon design projects or building a tetrahedron. For more information and a quite detailed report go to this post on the balloon-maker mailing list written by David Tanzer. If you are more a visual person I would suggest to check out the pictures that were taken during the event on the XLTA website. If you want to know even more or join one of the next XLTA meetings like the 2nd Annual XLTA - Seattle from August 3-5, 2007 in Seattle WA or the 4th Annual Amherst Experimental Balloon, Hopper, Chariot, and Airship Gathering (a.k.a. XLTA - Amherst) from May 16-18, 2008 in Amherst MA contact Dan Nachbar via XLTA

Amherst Experimental Balloon, Hopper, Chariot, and Airship Gathering

Dan Nachbar, the man behind the Personal Blimp asked us to point out the following announcement for the XLTA a small gathering of experimental LTA builders/pilots that he hosts annually.

Third Annual
Amherst Experimental
Balloon, Hopper, Chariot, and Airship
Gathering
sometimes known as XLTA3 and/or XLTA-Amherst)

June 1-3, 2007

Amherst MA (two hours by car West of Boston
in the beautiful Connecticut River valley)

All builders, owners, and fans of experimental and ultra-light LTA aircraft are invited.

This is a small private event: no paid rides, no public audience, no muss, no fuss. Just experimental LTA and the people who love to build and fly them (as well as friends and families, of course.) This event provides both an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences amongst builders and a chance to fly together informally.

My goal is to have a generally pleasant and easygoing event. However, in order to keep things reasonably well organized:

PLEASE REGISTER ONLINE BY MAY 15!!!

The online registration page is: http://www.xlta.org/regform2007.php

Each participating pilot with an aircraft is asked to chip in $50 to cover his/her entire entourage. (All money collected will be put towards covering the fixed expenses of the event. This is a purely non-profit affair.) Folks who come on their own (i.e. without an aircraft) will be asked to chip in $20 per person or family. Non-flying folks will also be asked to lend a hand with crewing and other logistic stuff. This is a participatory, not a spectator event.

To repeat, registration in advance is required. There is limited space available. Please don't just show up on the day of the event. You may well be turned away.
However, all registration fees and food/fuel deposits are fully refundable if you can't make it. So sign up and send a check by May 15 and everything will be just peachy.

I hope to be able to accommodate everyone who is interested in attending this year. However, things were pretty cozy last year. I can take some steps to make more room, but only if I have sufficient notice. After May 15, I'll only be able to accept registrations on a space-available basis. Again, I'll happily refund any money you put down if you can't make it.

Last year's event went amazingly well in spite of truly rotten weather that grounded everyone all weekend. The previous year we had faboulous flying. This year, who knows? And, while I can't promise anything about the weather, I do know we'll have:

• Nearby or (depending upon winds) on-site launches.
• On-site field for tethering to show off your latest design.
• 24 hour on-site inexpensive propane available for purchase.
• On-site workshop/sewing facilities for experiments/repairs.
• Pleasant on-site daytime hang-out, cooking, and eating space.
• On-site camping and RV parking.
• A wide variety of motels and hotels available nearby. (Be advised motel rooms in this area in June start at $110 per night. Some less expensive motels are a 20 minute drive away.)
• Local launch and chase crew available.
• On-site catered group meals available (with sign-up in advance)
• Nearby dining/entertainment/culture for rainy day amusement of both pilots and non-flying family members.
• On-site playground and indoor playroom for kids of all ages.

(For all of the above, the term "nearby" means less than a 10 minute drive by car.)

Again, please remember to register by May 15!

Contact Dan Nachbar at 413-549-1321 or dan at nachbar dot com for more information. (If you don't get a quick response to your email please assume that your message has mistakenly fallen prey to spam filtering and give me a phone call instead.)

So the registration deadline is just about two weeks away, please register at http://www.xlta.org/regform2007.php, take pictures or videos post them on flickr or youtoube and share them with us.

Balloons need helium to fly high

Since I didn't post on friday night the news items are piling up in my inbox, I'm trying to publish some of them.
So first I would like to point you to SOUTHERN BALLOON WORKS, INC. they offer a wide variety of advertsing inflatables and LTA stuff. In their line up are tethered blimps, rc controlled blimps, giant balloons and tradeshow balloons. All their products are custom made and offer a wide variety of options in colors and sizes. They also have a few pictures and videos on their site. Their biggest remote controlled blimps are around 4 meters in size. It's not big but for marketing it's definetly worth a look. So go check them out, if you are interested in advertising airships.
The next item is a new blog that just launched this week by two guys Alex & Brian Hall it is called Up Ship! and documents their plan to bring a zeppelin to the US. It accompanies thier website Airship Ventures, which is just a redicrect to the blog right now. I don't know if they want to build their own airship or blimp or if they actually want to buy one. I'm trying to contact them to find out more information.
Last up is a little tidbit about helium. This is more for people who do not know much about how Lighter Than Air (LTA) Technology works in all this airships and blimps. So the first article called "How Much Can a Helium Balloon Lift?" is a pretty complete Science Experiment calculating and measuring the exact lift of a standard helium balloon. The second article called "Helium makes the balloon fly!" is from a swedish website also explains why helium baloons fly, and what the differences between hydrogen, helium and hot air lift are. The artice even presents some formulars to calculate the lift. The article conludes with a short explanation about where helium comes from. It's worth a read for the interested. This is it, fr today, if you would lik eto leave a comment, please do so, any feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have a business having to do with LTA Aircrafts or technology and would like to get some information out please send us an email. We would also like to present books that are currently in the writing and other media formats, so please contact us via email airshipworld@gmail.com. In the next couple of days I'm gonna be rereleasing quite a lot of information that was previously published in the airshipworld yahoogroup. Hope to get some more exposure on the web through it.