The hot air balloon has always had a special relationship with anyone looking to leave terra firma, even if just for a little while. It is the oldest, successful, human-carrying flight method, dating back to France in 1783 when the first successful voyage was made by the Montgolfier brothers. Since then other designs have come and gone, and other forms of airship but the hot-air balloon remains as much used today as ever it did.
The theory that lifts these balloons is remarkably simple. All you need is a large balloon, something to hold the cargo (by that I mean the people) and a method for heating the air in the balloon. Unlike some other forms of airship in which gas was employed to create the lift, the hot-air balloon, unsurprisingly, operates solely of hot-air. Convection drives the hot air to rise up the middle of the balloon giving the lift, as the air cools and then drops it’s replaced by air that has been more recently heated by the gas burner above the basket. Modern balloons use a flame resistant fabric at the mouth of the balloon to prevent the fabric being lit by the flames of the gas burner.
Throughout history the principal uses of the hot-air balloon have been military, with the Chinese the first to use unmanned balloons as a method of military signalling around 200 AD. There are also suggestions that the Nazca Indians of Peru used balloons as a tool for designing the enormous drawings on the Nazca plains. They were definitely used by the French during the Revolutionary Wars, a tethered Hydrogen balloon was used during the Battle of Fleurus in 1794, and then used again in the American Civil War.
Today military reconnaissance has moved on, and the hot air balloon is principally used for recreation. Aside from the occasional sound of the burners a balloon is practically silent as it moves, largely pushed by currents on the air and capable of travelling for great distances. With the nature of the basket they are probably the only method of air transport that offers a panoramic, unimpeded view of the entire landscape spreading out below.
Hot-air balloon rides are wonderfully romantic, and thus make possibly the perfect romantic gift idea – obviously for those who are not afraid of heights. For a completely unparalleled experience, they are relatively cheap, and if fortunate with weather and other variables, can carve some astonishingly beautiful images into anyone’s memory. There is something about nature that attracts everyone, and the hot-air balloon is one of the best ways of viewing vast expanses of landscape that anyone could contrive.
If you are looking for a romantic gift idea, why not try ASDA Entertainment for excellent deals not only on hot air balloon rides, but any number of other ideas.