Overflite Model Hot Air Balloons - Instructions How to Build Birthday Candle Engine Powered UFO Fire Baloons
Mathematics and Technology for Science and Design

Birthday Candle Balloons can climb over two thousand feet high, sail for over a mile, shine like big orange stars and then finally burnout. It's like having your very own rocket launch program. Like NASA or SpaceX. Except cheaper, more fun and not so time-consuming.

People can fly fire balloon fleets - YouTube - Sky Lanterns - Or launch scenic location party balloons. Or play party balloon bocce ball or original starship trooper. Like some filibustero or sneaky pete - Can launch from anywhere there is a clear path to the sky. Balloon will then fly into the slipstream. Through the whirlwind and into the clear air.

-- BALLOON SCIENCE SCROLL DOWN -- or click - balloon history - balloon lift - balloon heating - balloon aerostatics
-- BALLOON DESIGNS - Homemade Plastic Bag Balloon - Dry Cleaner Bag Balloon - SCROLL DOWN


= = =

SAVE THE ICEBERGS - PLANETARY ENGINEERING - Hijack icebergs in Baffin Bay. Tow Iceberg-Trains to Safe-Space. Gate-Keep Bering Strait

Save the Icebergs - Save the World - Build the Iceberg-Space-Mirror in Hudson Bay - Build the Iceberg-Trains - Build the Iceberg-Wall - Save the Polar-Ice-Cap

www.vikingballoon.com

www.vikingballoons.com

= = =

Save
                        the Icebergs w Iceberg-Trains

= = =


VIKING FUNERAL BALLOON - w Crown Design Engine - burns up at the end to scatter the ashes

This is a concept balloon. Idea is for a paper balloon at around 1600 cubic feet. Powered by around 1000 birthday candles with crown engine heating and tic-tac-toe frame. With lots of options.
www.overflite.com/viking.html


Crown Engine

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.

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!! 

 - Computerized Simulation of Candle Balloon Design & Heating - Developed by Dan Freeland from the Czech Republic.

-
Central Park NYC -- Overflite's Secret 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.

- History of Fire Balloons - w Links

- Web Links -- Includes links to various plans for building paper hot air balloons. Etc.



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. People can reasonably claim - "Flown by the Billions" - since you can only imagine the extravaganzas the various emporers sponsored over the years. Plus the everyday sky lanterns for regular holidays, important events and remembrances. Plus all the wishes that people have flown for too. For fun or serious. Where sky lanterns symbolized a link between earth and heaven. With the sky as the cathedral.
Remember, you are completely responsible for every balloon you fly!

Launch prep
                        sheep meadow central park ny

Group launch

fire-up fat-boy balloon launch

Dead Road double-launch

We
                        have liftoff

Balloon Climb Phase

Engine go for launch


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.
 

SEE WARNINGS - BALLOONISTS COMPLETELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL FIRE BALLOONS - SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE INFORMATION


-- "Win one for the Gipper" - CIRCA 1919 George Gipp signed photograph was sold at auction 04/22/11. Heritage Auctions - www.ha.com  - The World's Largest Collectibles Auctioneer2011 April Dallas Signature Sports Collectibles Auction. Sports memorabilia experts say there are fewer than 10 Gipp's in the entire world. -- Find out - How many Gipps are there? <>

Win the Gipp - SOLD - for final realized price of $6572 - The second greatest trophy after the Stanley Cup
 

........  George
                          Gipp signed photograph ................Night Launch -
                        Dead Road - Central Park NY 1996 ........


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"-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  Go for Launch - Nowdays - It's buy and fly. Beaucoup stock and store. Seriously cheap. Especially for balloon bocce or fire balloon fleets. Muster motley crew of friendly friendlies. Launch cheap flights. Like filibustero or sneaky pete. Figure the flying lanterns to climb into the slipstream for a five minute one-click free flight. But it seems much longer. Colder the better. Like a PBR. Or Dogfish Head.

Some say... for presumed best visibility ideal lift-off time is roughly four minutes before sunset. Sunset sweeps upward into the sky at around 1,000 feet per minute. Afterglow is minimal. I'm not a believer though. Think it might just be some chimera. When it is over it is over. But not until then. To learn about this, notice illuminated contrails and exact time. Then know yourself quite perfectly when the illumination disappears. Be a good healthy camper. Victory rolls are cool too. Can also do Google Earth from street address of launch site. Then make a video of your launch! 


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

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- 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 -- 

 - National UFO Reporting Center --Homepage -- UFO Reports Database -- - Roswell II? -- Reports from the Ongoing UFO Craze in Rockford, Illinois --  

- -

--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.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

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" - 

 Great song - Gonna be a Showdown - ELO - Electric Light Orchestra - Every dream in her heart was gone - - Heading for a showdown - Great poem - The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe - Let my heart be still a moment - - And this mystery explore - - 'Tis the wind and nothing more -
 Great poem - Rime of Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - The selfsame moment I could pray - - And from my neck so free - - The Albatross fell off, and sank - - Like lead into the sea -

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

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 of the ORIGINAL MONTGOLFIER PAPER BALLOONS

- 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 - Also think they might have been popular in bohemian circles. And that people in Paris liked them a lot. Especially to cap off the evening.

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."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

OVERFLITE MODEL HOT AIR BALLOONS


 Traditional Paper Fire Balloons or Montgolfiers (In Italian) - have been flying ever since the invention of the manned hot air balloon, by the Montgolfier Brothers, in 1783. In the United States they were known as Fourth of July Balloons and were part of American Folk History, of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Likewise, fire balloons are also a part of World History.
 -------------------------------- 

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 account 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 birthday candle balloons - Most of these balloons are knuckle-scrapers. But show a lot of devotion and love.
 

Fire Balloons! Materials, Construction and Design

 
 Classic dry cleaner bag balloons are made with thin half-mil "dress bags," 4 1/2 feet tall, weighing 6/10th of an ounce. Taller half-mil bags also work, but are hard to find. Nowdays most dry cleaner bags are 3/4 mil thickness, and weigh too much to fly. Sometimes hobbyists tape two dry cleaner bags together to make a larger bag. In warm weather, dry cleaner bag balloons tend to hover at first, with very little net lift. At high elevations, dry cleaner bag balloons may not fly at all. 

"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.

------------------------------------

Fire Balloons! Warnings and Cautions:  

Once a fire balloon gets launched it becomes completely uncontrollable. It can't be recalled. Fire... flying through the sky. You had better hope it has a successful flight. If it crashes and starts a fire and the police get involved then it is important to confess. Since it can only get worse if the police have to track you down. But balloons that crash in trees that go out? Forget about it. Also to remember that the sky does not catch on fire. So hope the balloons go up really really high. Then burn out. Then they are safe. Since nothing happened.
 
People under eighteen years old should have parental permission to fly powered model hot air balloons. Remember that fire balloons might be considered to be fireworks, and potential fire hazards. Do not use any fuel that does not easily blow out. 

 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 -------------------------------------. 

Fire Balloons launch best at sea level, in cool weather, with very little wind and no strong gusts. For local wind speed, visit YAHOO WEATHER. The calmest weather is generally early evening, late evening and dawn. At sunset and dawn, the red of the sun can make the balloons shimmer. For group launches try three balloons. "Best of Sights, Overflight." 

  By Thomas Taylor -- balloons@overflite.com
 
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

-- Ron Paul - State of Republic Address - 1/22/10 - Ron Paul Warns of Coming Social and Political Chaos - here - Part 3 of 3 - 3:00 minutes -
 "... Dangerous times indeed. What can be done about it? Must we wait for the inevitable and expect to restore our liberties in a streetfight against the overwhelming power of the state? Not a good option ... Liberty ... Freedom ... An all powerful state is the threat to that ideal ... ".

 -- Mick Jagger -- Well then what can a poor boy do? Except to sing for a rock and roll band. Cause in sleepy London Town there's just no place for a street fighting man.
 
---------------------------

 -- Hudson -- That's it man, game over man, game over! What are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do? --

-- Burke -- Why don't we build a fire, sing a couple of songs! Why don't we try that? --

-- Hudson --17 days?! - (until rescue ship arrives) - Hey man, I don't want to rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last 17 hours against those things! --

-- Ripley -- Hudson! This little girl (Newt) survived longer than that with no weapons and no training. -- Hudson- Why don't you put her in charge? --

-- Ripley -- I feel like kind of a fifth wheel around here, is there anything I can do? -- Apone -- I dunno, is there anything you can do?

 ---------------------------
 Hijack - Blows Against the Empire - Jefferson Starship - 1970 -       lyrics
 You know - a starship circlin in the sky - it ought to be ready by 1990
They'll be buildin it up in the air even since 1980
People with a clever plan can assume the role of the mighty
and HIJACK THE STARSHIP
Carry 7000 people past the sun
And our babes'll wander naked thru the cities of the universe
Cmon
free minds, free bodies, free dope, free music
the day is on its way the day is ours
 ---------------------------

 Abraham Lincoln - (1809 - April 15, 1865)
 -- Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.
 -- If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
 -- If General McClellan isn't going to use his army, I'd like to borrow it for a time.
 -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
 -- Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
 -- This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-----------------------------

 NOTE: Mary Shelley created Frankenstein in the summer of 1816, in Switzerland, when she was 18 years old. This was Volcano Summer 1816. When winter never left. Meanwhile her housemate, Lorn Byron, created Dracula. Thereby creating two of the greatest characters in science fiction and horror. As one of the great crowning achievements in literary history. Literally inventing both genres at the same time.

 Meanwhile her brand-new husband Percy Bysshe Shelley was also famous as a great poet. Previously he flew fire balloons over London Town. This was in around 1812, when he was 20 years old. To protest English colonial rule over Ireland. Apparently he also attached sheets of his own writing. Some might have been banned. Shelley apparently also enclosed sheets of writing in bottles. Then presumably floated them away or left them in places where they were likely to be found by friendlies. This was a common method of protest at the time.

 At the time Europe was recovering from the after-effects of the 1789 French Revolution. Which caused chaos, class warfare and civil war for several years. This lead to Napoleon. Who conquered most of Northern Europe at one time or another. Until he was finally beaten for good in 1815. One year prior. This 25 year disruption largely ended feudalism in Europe. Which was characterized by most of the people living as peasants or serfs. People were henceforth emancipated. And were free to live their lives as they chose. This was also the start of the industrial revolution. People visualized new societies and wondered what they would look like and how they would be created. It can be said to be the beginning of the modern age. Which was characterized by the rise of both industry and the nation-state. Most notably the independence of the nations of Germany and Italy in around 1870.
 
 -- Percy Bysshe Shelley - (1792-1822) -- A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. -- Love is free. To promise for ever to love the same woman is not less absurd than to promise to believe the same creed. Such a vow in both cases excludes us from all inquiry.

 -- A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.

 -- When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even. -- First our pleasures die - and then our hopes, and then our fears - and when these are dead, the debt is due - dust claims dust - and we die too. -- Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves.

  -- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - (1797-1851)  -- Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of voice, but out of chaos. -- The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized.

 -- How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.

 -- If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.

  -- No man chooses evil because it is evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks
.
 -- Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.  -- I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.

 -- What terrified me will terrify others. And I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.

 -- I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created.

  -- Frankenstein - The Modern Prometheus - (1818)  -- Once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.
 
-- I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe.

 -- Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him. But I am solitary and detested.

 -- If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear! -- Beware - for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.

 -- Devil, do you dare approach me? And do you not fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head?

 -- With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries?
 
-- He is dead who called me into being. When I shall be no more the very remembrance of us both will speedily vanish.
 
-- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley -- The giant now awoke. The mind, never torpid, but never rouzed to its full energies, received the spark which lit it into an unextinguishable flame. Who can now tell the feelings of liberal men on the first outbreak of the French Revolution. In but too short a time afterwards it became tarnished by the vices of Orléans — dimmed by the want of talent of the Girondists — deformed and blood-stained by the Jacobins.
 
-- Winston Churchill - "What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."
 
--------------------------------------

Summary - When riding a motorcycle too fast into a hairpin turn there are basically two strategies about what to do to avoid possible injury and death and destruction.

 Risky Strategy - Go over the top - Speed up and drop down into the turn and hope you don't hit sand or gravel or the rail or fence or curb or ditch. If the bike crashes it will typically flip over in the opposite direction and fling the rider high into the air at high speed. It is a very dangerous strategy. But does sometimes avoid crashes. By the amazing ability of the expert rider to manouver a high speed turn. But the crashes are very spectacular and deadly too. Typically both the bike and rider get completely destroyed. This is what the Obamian Administration is doing right now.

 Conservative Strategy - Prepare to drop the bike - Slow down for the crash as much as possible while still trying to make the turn and find an opportunity. Then do everything possible to defend against the crash. Typical move is to lay down the bike in towards the turn and then try to ride the bike like a sled for as long as possible. Then to try to treat getting thrown off the bike like it is some kind of great leap forward. And live to fight another day. Possibly with a reasonably undamaged bike too. This is what the Republicans and Tea Party is proposing to do. For America to survive. It is also the less dicey strategy of the two. And with greater promise for long-term success.

 --------------------------------------
 
-- Tacitus -- A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.

-- Maximilien Robespierre -- The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

-- Napoleon Bonaparte -- When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

-- Leon Trotsky -- England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.

-- Saul Alinsky -- An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent ... He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time. Out of this mechanism, a new community organization arises ... The job then is getting the people to move, to act, to participate; in short, to develop and harness the necessary power to effectively conflict with the prevailing patterns and change them.

 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 Rime of the Ancient Mariner

- By Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1796 - Excerpt

 Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watched the water-snakes
They moved in tracks of shining white
And when they reared, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
 Within the shadow of the ship
I watched their rich attire:
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,
They coiled and swam; and every track
Was a flash of golden fire.
 O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
 The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.

  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =     
The OVERFLITE STORE Sells "Ready to Fly" Hot Air Balloons and Kits-- 
 
--Made by Identified Flying Objects Ltd (IFO) 

 


"Best of Sights, Overflight"

 


www.overflite.com

balloons@overflite.com

-

-

-

-


-


-