Post by Tom Goodrick on Oct 15, 2009 23:41:20 GMT -5
Many of us with not much to do (I was adding scenery to a railroad sim) watched a dupposed drama develop this afternoon as a balloon shaped like a flying saucer flowated with the wind over Colorado, travelling over 80 miles. The drama was that it was reported by the family that had built the balloon that there was a 6-yearold boy inside the small cylindrical box attached to its underside.
The video we wathed was stunningly dramatic as this balloon seemed to swoop and soar in sunny skies with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in the background. The motion was mainly due to the TV helicopter that was swooping and moving quickly around it keeping it in view of the long TV lens. In some close up shots it looked like the balloon was deforming against a relative wind. There were a few lines dangling that had been used as tethers. At times these seemed to be drawn back as though by a relative wind.
I had trouble, as did everyone who saw it trying to figure the scale. Was it 20 ft in diameter of 40 ft? The answer turned out to be about 20 ft. I was trying to estimate the volume to figure how much it could lift. But that was hard to do because of the shap as two dishes, one inverted over the other. But also it was constructed like a parachute with gores, some of which were deflating.
So we watched this flight for over three hours until it came down gently in a field. It had floated from near Ft Collins, CO to a point east of Denver. Men were tracking it on the ground as it came down. They ran to it and grabbed it lines after it was down to prevent it from moving away. They found no boy inside. At that point the police and others back at the family's house began a thorough search. The boy was hiding in an attic in the garage. He had heard the commotion and thought he would be severely punished!
I have just been watching a TV interview with the family on CNN's Larry king show. At first I thought it was just a hoax by the father to get publicity for his "invention". But it seems to be strange accident brought about by childrens' being allowed to play with dangerous equipment that even their father, the inventor to did not understand.
It was well constructed. Imagine two parachute canopies, one inverted over the other, connected along the skirt and at the center point where a vent would be in a parachute. Such a pair of canopies would be constructed gore-by-gore for each surface (which would lay flat. The gore-construction under pressure provides a sturdy form. There seemed to be drop lines inside connecting top and bottom surfaces at several points. It was pressurized with helium. I have done calculations that show it does not take a very large volume to lift a person - not as large for example as a hot air balloon because helium has a lot more lift. The father does not seem to have given too much attention to just how much lift the balloon had. He was trying to find out by experiments.
Once I saw the balloon up contacting the ground and learned there was no boy inside, I had major doubts that it was capable of lifting a kid. But the parents genuinely thought he was inside.
The material was thin mylar that has been used to make balloons for many years. It can be formed by connecting panels with seems that are sealed by heat guns - hot knives or heat guns. I remember examining one in college that was used for radar tracking at high altitude ( called a "gymsphere balloon). On an impulse I held the lens of my camera (I was trying to be an artist shooting anything and everything in those days) against the balloon as a rising sun shone on the opposite side. The image was very colorful. But step back a few feet and it looks like solid metal.
But there is more to this strange story. The father had made "high voltage" panels on opposite sides of the upper and lower surface. His intent was to use the high voltage to move the surfaces in various ways to propell it slowly and to control its attitude as it "flew". In fact he had steped into the house, while the balloon was tethered in the back yard, to throw the switch that "turned on the high voltage system" when the kid supposedly climbed inside and the balloon lifted off. Sounds like great stuff for the kids to play with in the back yard!!
The only witness to the takeoff was the older brother (age 10) who is not real sure at this point what he saw.
The video we wathed was stunningly dramatic as this balloon seemed to swoop and soar in sunny skies with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in the background. The motion was mainly due to the TV helicopter that was swooping and moving quickly around it keeping it in view of the long TV lens. In some close up shots it looked like the balloon was deforming against a relative wind. There were a few lines dangling that had been used as tethers. At times these seemed to be drawn back as though by a relative wind.
I had trouble, as did everyone who saw it trying to figure the scale. Was it 20 ft in diameter of 40 ft? The answer turned out to be about 20 ft. I was trying to estimate the volume to figure how much it could lift. But that was hard to do because of the shap as two dishes, one inverted over the other. But also it was constructed like a parachute with gores, some of which were deflating.
So we watched this flight for over three hours until it came down gently in a field. It had floated from near Ft Collins, CO to a point east of Denver. Men were tracking it on the ground as it came down. They ran to it and grabbed it lines after it was down to prevent it from moving away. They found no boy inside. At that point the police and others back at the family's house began a thorough search. The boy was hiding in an attic in the garage. He had heard the commotion and thought he would be severely punished!
I have just been watching a TV interview with the family on CNN's Larry king show. At first I thought it was just a hoax by the father to get publicity for his "invention". But it seems to be strange accident brought about by childrens' being allowed to play with dangerous equipment that even their father, the inventor to did not understand.
It was well constructed. Imagine two parachute canopies, one inverted over the other, connected along the skirt and at the center point where a vent would be in a parachute. Such a pair of canopies would be constructed gore-by-gore for each surface (which would lay flat. The gore-construction under pressure provides a sturdy form. There seemed to be drop lines inside connecting top and bottom surfaces at several points. It was pressurized with helium. I have done calculations that show it does not take a very large volume to lift a person - not as large for example as a hot air balloon because helium has a lot more lift. The father does not seem to have given too much attention to just how much lift the balloon had. He was trying to find out by experiments.
Once I saw the balloon up contacting the ground and learned there was no boy inside, I had major doubts that it was capable of lifting a kid. But the parents genuinely thought he was inside.
The material was thin mylar that has been used to make balloons for many years. It can be formed by connecting panels with seems that are sealed by heat guns - hot knives or heat guns. I remember examining one in college that was used for radar tracking at high altitude ( called a "gymsphere balloon). On an impulse I held the lens of my camera (I was trying to be an artist shooting anything and everything in those days) against the balloon as a rising sun shone on the opposite side. The image was very colorful. But step back a few feet and it looks like solid metal.
But there is more to this strange story. The father had made "high voltage" panels on opposite sides of the upper and lower surface. His intent was to use the high voltage to move the surfaces in various ways to propell it slowly and to control its attitude as it "flew". In fact he had steped into the house, while the balloon was tethered in the back yard, to throw the switch that "turned on the high voltage system" when the kid supposedly climbed inside and the balloon lifted off. Sounds like great stuff for the kids to play with in the back yard!!
The only witness to the takeoff was the older brother (age 10) who is not real sure at this point what he saw.
