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This is a concept balloon. Idea is for a paper balloon at around 1600 cubic feet. Powered by around 1000 birthday candles. With reasonably serious heating can figure a heat rise of around 100 F degrees and around 1/5 ounce lift per cubic foot . Or a pound of gross lift per 80 cubic feet.  So total lift is around 20 pounds or 320 ounces. This makes the balloon around 15 feet in diameter. Surface area is around 800 square feet. So figure to use up around 5 pounds of paper. High quality 4 foot rolls of white tissue paper should work fine. And burn up well.

Can figure on roughly 1000 birthday candles for a 10-15 minute flight. Original weight is 24 candles per ounce. Or 40 ounces. Padded to 50 or 60 ounces. Add in another pound for a tic-tac-toe or pound-sign frame ( # ). This means the empty weight of the viking balloon is around 10 pounds. Leaving roughly 10 pounds for the ashes and funeral bier. Which would presumably be glued together with paper and light wood. And which would presumably also burn up.

Could form the birthday candles into a double-file crown of 500+500 birthday candles. The candles are 1/4 wide. This would makes the engine roughly 3 feet in diameter. Which seems fairly cumbersome. But the funeral bier could go in the middle. Or could have concentric circles. Or a set of say 7 crown engines as pictured below. Which has roughly 144 birthday candles. Or could also do other configurations of candle-engines. Since each engine has so many candles they won't easily blow out.

Flight time is around 10 to 15 minutes. Which should be long enough for the balloon to fly a mile or so out to sea. When the candles burn down the balloon will naturally burn up. Some artfulness is needed to get the timing right so the balloon burns up and the ashes scatter as completely as possible. Into the wind, into the slipstream, over the sea. "From the sea we came and back to the sea we shall go."

MODEL HOT AIR BALLOON SCIENCE

BALLOON LIFT - Weight of Air Calculation, Heating and Hot Air Balloon Lift - applies Gas Laws to model hot air balloons.
 
BALLOON HEATING - Mathematical Models for Candle Balloon Design - builds a system of geometric models for approximating candle balloon heating. Suggests how many birthday candles to use for different volumes.
 
BALLOON DESIGN - Aerostatic Design Principles for Paper Hot Air Balloons!! -- Applies Geometry, Algebra, and Scaling, to build formulas and methodologies for calculating theoretical specifications for both plastic and paper model hot air balloons.
 
BALLOON VOLUME - Volume Calculations for Cylinder Shaped Balloons includes a table for different bag sizes. It also describes Scaling, ie. the geometry for changes in dimensions, volume and surface area for equivilently shaped objects.

BALLOON LAB - Hot Air Balloon Laboratory -- School Science Project Lesson Plan heats a dry cleaner bag balloon, with a hot air popcorn popper. Measures temperature and lift. Applies the mathematics for Gas Laws.

NOTICE: All Balloonists are warned that they build and fly Fire Balloons completely at their own risk, and that they are completely responsible for determining all risks, and for any consequences that result! Sky Lanterns have been flying for almost 2000 years. Can people say - "Flown by the Billions"

Remember, you are completely responsible for every balloon you fly!

 Instructions How to Build Dry Cleaner Bag Fire Balloons. Included are balsa wood "H-frame" balloons, drinking straw "X-frame" balloons, and mixed component balloons. Also included are specs for the physical dry cleaner bags that fly. Plus list of plastic bag supply houses. Where perhaps a large roll contains 666 balloon bags - allotment.

 Instructions How to Build Homemade Bag Fire Balloons. Only balsa wood "H-frame" balloons are included so far. Stay tuned for information on drinking straw frame balloons. Possibly with "X-frame." Or go figure. Since it is pretty simple anyway. Main rule being that if the engine gets too heavy then just add another strut!!

Models include Homemade Plastic Bag Balloon & Dry Cleaner Bag - Straw Boss Balloon ...
- Drinking straws are stuck together to make the X-frame. Scotch tape flaps on the ends of the straws make it simple to tape frame to bag. Engine is pinned to frame with three shirt pins.
- Typical birthday candle engine for Straw Boss is made with 24 of the 36/pack Cakemate candles. Melted together with a fork. Made double-file. 12 + 12 = 24 candles. For cold weather only!
- Alternately balsa wood sticks can be tied together or taped together into an H-frame. - Specifications for Pic Balloon - 15 cubic feet - 1/3 mil bag made w hot pizza-cutter - H-frame balsa wood frame - single-file engine - w 44 candles - 24/pack type.
 

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Central Park NYC -- Overflite'sSecret Home Base - 10106 - Mostly flew after things got quiet. Mostly from 1995 to 1999. Had some beautiful flights. Hale-Bobb Intercept - Great Triangle in the Sky - Thread the Needle - Take the A-Train - NE Corridor - East River Bump - West Side Hudson - Helicopter Escort - Reflections in the Glass - Behondo - Yankees launch - Hells Gate launch - Richard Nixon Memorial launch - DC Expeditionary Launch - Over 100 flights.

Also check out - YouTube -- Video - candle hot air balloon - fire balloon - ufo balloon - sky lantern -- Plus - SCROLL DOWN - for - SERIOUS FIRE BALLOON INFO - Includes balloon science, theory and design. Plus actual flying models. Includes Straw Boss dry cleaner bag model. Plus exotics & imaginaries & theoretical balloons. -- BALLOON REPORT - "very peaceful - serene - beautiful - I think we witnessed some type of miracle"-
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BUY SKY LANTERNS - "Soar High and Travel Far" - Flying Lanterns were invented in China around 1,800 years ago - for military communications. To signal safety - or danger. Plus to warn the people of enemy attack. Plus to celebrate holidays - Light Path of Heaven to Earth. Nowdays fire balloons fly all around the world by the millions. Adding up over many centuries into billions. Purchase sky lanterns on both - eBay and Amazon - for only two or three dollars apiece. Plus fireworks stores. Flying lanterns are mostly manufacturered in China and Thailand. 

Video - wow hot balloon - or click here - Balloon launch model looks similar to the overflite birthday candle balsa wood homemade bag designs.

- What Fire Balloons Can and Cannot Do
 - History of Fire Balloons - w Links

- Blows Against the Empire - Hijack the Starship - lyrics            - - Miracles -
- Web Links -- Includes links to various plans for building paper hot air balloons. Etc.

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- ABC TV News Report -- July 17, 2001 -- Strange Lights over New Jersey - & Possible Explanations
- 1970s UFO Sightings -- News Article - Overflite Dry Cleaner Bag Fire Balloons

- Police Chopper Attacked by UFO in Kentucky -- Couple Confesses to Launching Dry Cleaner Bag UFO Fire Balloon --

- For Sale: Slightly Used UFO -- Needs New Candle -- Contact the Sheriff --

- Police Say Some UFO's are Fire Balloons with Candles --

- UFO Reports and Pranks Continuing...

-  Homepage for Larry Robinson -- UFO Debunker -- 

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--Like some unbearably hot air balloon camp town sneaky pete copacetic paper air force snoopy dog camp ground lowdown showdown light-weight flea-flicker beer belly flip-flop fogie foggy bottom fish tidal pond water spout mall rat swampground rat-faced dog robber Jack & Jill. -- Then slowly holiday parade float water back pain goose down to the three phase neutral ground. More fun than spud gun or tennis ball cannon barrel roll. For birthday party ideas or music concert tour or airshow fly-by rodeo cowboy bull lingo. Then go running track one it and chase bank it down vest jacket. Plus keep score too. Splash-down. Right on the money. Hole-in-one. Bingo. Augered in. Done deed. Bingo. Bocce ball toss up parabola buys mucho dinero rounds of golf club balls and cocktail fruit drink special situations. Parade float boat and passenger ship. Music player video revolution. Revolutionary soldier camping tent. Beans and bacon. Down under the radar. Bike by touring bicycle wheel. Roll over the national international cheerleading squad. Global competition brigade. Titanic titan or Alexander or sneaky Peter the Great. Up against the wall decor sword of the xenomorph. Without ceremony. By virtue of the authority. Fly like an eagle. Free freedom bird nest airline. Five by five. Bronco billy club jack. Clausewitz or Sun Tzu ground or Machievelli or Galileo telescope. War protest. Newt Gingrich 2012. Sarah Palin 2012. Christine O'Donnell 2012. Zeus Olympus Olympics Olympiad. Jupiter or Apollo project or Saturn booster rocket or Mercury space capsule or Gemini spaceship capsule. Hit Homer or Aesop fable about or sly fox or black crow or tortoise or turtle or american eagle or billy goat or sheep or sheeple horse salamander or frog man mouse a lion a wolf pack. Chicago Eu Spain Mexico Greece Potomac UK Germany Russia. Get higher higher education standards.
 

LAUNCH IDEAS

-- Check weather - for ambient temperature - wind speed & wind direction - google nyc zip code - 10106 weather hour by hour NOTE - Wind direction is where the wind comes from. North by North-West is written NNW. Balloons travel in the exact opposite direction - South by South-East - SSE.

-- Large friendly crowd is always good. Lighted utility candles might help camouflage launch and provide good visual effect. Always remember to act super-friendly with any higher ups. To help give the balloons time to escape.

-- FOR FASTER LIGHTING & HEATING - High-temperature blowtorch-type lighter might help speed up the lighting of the fuel cell. Faster the better.

-- BUY CHEAP TORCH LIGHTER FROM SMOKE STORE - $5 - To pre-heat lantern, a birthday candle "torch" might work too. Who knows? Wrap 24+ birthday candles in rubberband. Then drip layers of wax onto the candles to hold them together. Build out the sides real thick to slow down the sides from melting away. Can make the torch double or even triple high to last longer. Can also make a special torch holder out of cardboard and masking tape.

-- To pre-heat lantern, a can of sterno might work okay. Plus possibly to help light fuel cell too. Can wear glove and tape masking tape all around can so it does not get too hot to handle.

-- Heat Funnel Sterno Battery can be made with corrugated box. Plus sterno for heating. Shape the flaps at the top into a pyramid. Tape top together with masking tape to make heat funnel. Guess a six inch opening is reasonable. Cut or tear air vents at bottom to let air in. Heat with four to six can sterno battery.

NOTES - Sterno is the only reasonably safe way I have ever been able to think of to make a Heat Funnel Sterno Battery. To pre-heat serious balloons. Sterno is very expensive. Most importantly it heats with a separate low flame for each can. Which is good. Most of the other ideas are not very good. Especially bad is either a high flame or that enable the flames to combine into a super-flame. Flammable liquids are also mostly bad. Even close to 100% isopropyl alcohol. Because the flame tends to get too big. Plus the flame is close to invisible. Other possible ideas include charcoal or some type of super-candle. Or some formula for DIY sterno. Also... Camping stoves are generally somewhat weak sources of heat. IMHO. But might work OK. Don't know. Also, if you insist on alcohol, 100% only. NO water. lol. Plus some type of splash pan might work ok. Guessing. Like a super-sized large piece of aluminum foil. Reason why is IF the latent alcohol quickly disappears. Otherwise you invite yourself a fireball. Or thunderball. Seriously. Remember dumb ideas are bad.

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Can also play with terminology. Especially for group launches or flashmobs. Back and forth between launch commanders and ringleaders and crowd - google - youtube apollo 13 go for launch

"Apollo 13 Flight Controllers - Listen up - Give me a go or no go for launch" - Q - "...Are you go?" - A - "We are go - fly." - "We are go for launch." - or - "We are no-go - chill - wait a minute"
Then later post-launch - "We have lift-off" - "Rocket is go" -- Plus other pseudo and pretend aeronautic and rocket talk - "On my mark" - "We have rocket" - "We have balloon." - "Roger that." - "Going ballistic" - "Right up the middle." - "In the profile." - "We are in the pipe - five by five." - "Rough air ahead - we're in for some chop." - "We are on an express elevator to hell - going down." - 

Great quotes - Alien - "Has anyone ever mistaken you for a man?" - A - "No, you?" - - "What do you mean they cut the power? - How could they cut the power? - They're animals." - "Let's just bug out and call it even, okay?" Great quotes - Winston Churchill - "If we fail, then the whole world... will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister... by the lights of perverted science."
 Great song - Culture Warriors - Amendment X - "Wake up and take a stand - They are stealing our freedom across the land - Wake up - Can't you see? - Our freedom is not what it used to be -
 Great song - Grateful Dead - Brown Eyed Women - Sing! - "Tumble down shack in Bigfoot County - Snowed so hard that the roof caved in - Delilah Jones went to meet her God - and the old man never was the same again - Daddy made whiskey and he made it well - cost two dollars - burned like hell - I cut hickory just to fire the still - drink down a bottle and you're ready to kill" -
Great song - Jimmie Rodgers - Away out on the Mountain - 1927 - "Where the whipporwills sing me to sleep at night - and the eagle roosts on the rocks of spontane" - 

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HISTORY in WEST                                

 - Paper and wax fire balloons have a long history in the West. Going back to the Montgolfiers in 1783. The French thought of balloons as a transformative tool for human thought. Per typical French Deist thinking. Especially during the Balloon Craze Period. Yeah, let's forget about God. Let's worship balloons instead.

The French Revolution Period from 1789 to Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 was a time of big ideas. Some good. Some horrible. As expressed by Percy Shelley, who flew protest balloons over London Town in around 1812. He wanted the Brits out of Ireland. So he flew fire balloons to protest. Meanwhile lots of other people were flying fire balloons too. With their own pseudo-ideas and declarations. "This balloon..."

Sonnet - To a Balloon, Laden with Knowledge
by Percy Bysshe Shelley - (1812)

  Bright ball of flame that thro the gloom of even
Silently takest thine etherial way
And with surpassing glory dimmst each ray
Twinkling amid the dark blue Depths of Heaven
Unlike the Fire thou bearest, soon shall thou
Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom
Whilst that unquencheable is doomed to glow
A watch light by the patriots lonely tomb
A ray of courage to the opprest & poor,
A spark tho' gleaming on the hovel's hearth
Which thro the tyrants gilded domes shall roar
A beacon in the darkness of the Earth
A Sun which oer the renovated scene
Shall dart like Truth where Falshood yet has been
 
There are several other documented practical uses for the fire balloons in political and military history. First with the original Chinese inventors and others for military communications. Including the conquest of Taiwan. To communicate between paramilitary in mountainous terrain. Now a national symbol and festival. Second to signal the start the failed Nagpur Revolt. Though the balloons never flew. Because the ringleaders got caught. Third was by the French Resistance. Who reportedly flew fire balloons against enemy troops. Which the enemy might have tried to shoot down. Followed up by cat and mouse - ditch the cops - don't get caught - Blows Against the Empire.

RISE & FALL

- Paper Fire Balloons remained popular in the West throughout the 19th Century until around the Great Depression. Or even past WWII in some places in the US. Also known as Fourth of July Balloons. But they didn't last. And got replaced in the popular imagination by The Airplane -

As described by Julie White in Peoria IL - The First Forty Years - "The automobile displaces the horse and buggy, while in the sky Fourth-of-July fire balloons floating over the city give way to airplanes."

Some old people still remember them. Though mostly likely only as a vignette. Since they would have been so young back then. And have not likely thought much about it since then. Until something reminds them. Ask them! But also the tradition has been kept alive throughout Latin America and in various places in Italy and Greece and elsewhere. So some travelers would become familiar about them through original experience.

Ray Bradbury wrote the "Martian Chronicles" in 1948. Apparently fire balloons are scheduled to fly on Mars in 2033. To communicate with the last living Martians. Otherwise Bradbury describes "The Fire Balloons" from 1925.

"You rarely see them these days, though in some countries I hear they are still made and filled with warm breath from a small straw fire hung beneath. But in 1925 Illinois we still had them, and one of the last memories I have of my grandfather is the last hour of a Fourth of July night 48 years ago when Grandpa and I walked out on the lawn, lit a small fire and filled the pear-shaped red-white-and-blue striped paper balloon full with hot air, and held the flickering bright angel presence in our hands - a final moment in front of a porch lined with uncles and aunts and cousins and mothers and fathers - and then very softly let the thing that was life and light and mystery go out of our fingers up on the summer air and away over the beginning-to-sleep houses among the stars as fragile, as wondrous, as vulnerable, as lovely, as life itself."

People still fly paper fire balloons in a number of places around the world, mainly for Festival of Lights Celebrations. In Brazil - (2) people balloons fly in June. In Italy people balloons fly in September. In Greece people fly balloons for Easter. In Buddhist countries people fly balloons in October, to celebrate Buddha's return from Heaven and to light the path from heaven to earth.

During World War II French Resistance Fighters apparently launched paper fire balloons. In French, "Foo" means either fire or fool. Many of the Foo Fighter Sightings - (2) seem a lot like fire balloons too. Also, on February 25, 1942, it seems a Japanese submarine might have launched hydrogen balloons, with flares attached, to trigger The Battle of Los Angeles.

Dry cleaner bag fire balloons were also inspired by Kenneth Arnold's 1947 UFO Sighting. They were then popularized by Popular Science Magazine instructions how to build miniature hot air balloon with dry cleaner bag, wire, cotton and lighter fluid. Here is a first-person acdount of one of those early UFO balloons. Meanwhile enterprising young inventors invented the birthday candle balloon too. And inventors are still inventing the birthday candle balloon today. See                                                                               YouTube. Though mostly as knuckle-scrapers.
 

"Large Envelopes," in different sizes and shapes, can be made with thin plastic sheeting. Look for 1/3 mil (8 micron) high-density plastic sheeting. Welds are made with a heated pizza cutter, on top of a wooden board. It is amazing how well this system works! Scotch tape repairs any weak spots.

IMPORTANT - To stabilize the balloons, the bags are tapered, and small ventilation holes are made. This provides "negative draft," which helps to reduce the de-stabilizing effects of "billowing."

"H-Frames" are made by tying three balsa wood sticks together with string. The "H-Frame" and balsa wood design is more advanced than the traditional X-frame. Since the two sides help keep the bag away from the frame. But the H-frame does not adapt very well to drinking straws.

"X-Frames" are ideally suited to drinking straws. They can be made by sticking drinking straws into each other, and pinning two sets together with a shirt pin.

Engines are made by melting birthday candles together with a heated fork. Alternately, dripped wax can melt the candles together. The most efficient engines are single-file. They get maximum oxygen and cooling area. To conserve space, engines can also be made double-file. Here two single-files are melted together. Melted wax holds the engine to the frame.

Technologically advanced balloonists can apply the information to design large volume Christmas Candle Balloons, or Homemade Candle Balloons, which can burn for around forty minutes. Candle Powered Paper Hot Air Balloons can also be designed. For more detailed information on design and construction -- Stay tuned!

NOTE: For any type of experimental fire balloon, it is not a good idea to rely too much on an outside heat source. Otherwise a too-heavy balloon might climb up at first, then land, risking a crash and burn.

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 Do not fly fire balloons in any fire danger areas, especially if they are hilly or mountainous, or if it is windy or gusting. Do not fly any faulty or damaged fire balloons. Avoid Crash and Burns. Balloonists are obligated not to cause any fire danger. Also, fire balloons should not be made too large, in case they land directly in automobile traffic.

 The FAA prohibits operating any "Unmanned Free Balloon" in a hazardous manner, per FAA-DOT 101.7 - The FAA also prohibits including any significant amounts of metal, on devices that fly to altitudes where there may be aircraft. Do not fly wire frame fire balloons. They can be dangerous to turbine engine aircraft. They can also short-circuit electrical power lines.                                                                      

Do not fly fire balloons near airports. Especially avoid active takeoff and landing patterns. Avoid flying fire balloons near any other prohibited or restricted areas without permission, as appropriate, unless it is very late at night -- and doesn't matter.

Build flightworthy balloons, according to the conditions. Avoid flying fire balloons in winds above ten miles per hour, especially if gusting. Avoid damaging balloons or crashing them into obstacles. Avoid antagonizing the police or neighbors. Monitor the complete flight of every balloon. Be responsible, and use good judgement. Try to make every flight a success!.

As long as candle powered fire balloons don't crash and burn, there is not a big fire danger. The plastic bag does not appear likely to become a serious hazard either, as long it isn't very large and it doesn't land directly in automobile traffic -------------------------------------.