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By 1958, the Fulton aerial retrieval system, or "Skyhook", was finished. The ground system could be dropped from an aircraft and contained the necessary equipment for a pickup, including a harness, for cargo or a person, attached to 500 feet (150 m) of high-strength, braided nylon line and a dirigible-shaped balloon inflated by a helium bottle.
The hull of the aerostat contains two parts separated by a gas-tight fabric partition. The upper chamber is filled with helium and provides the aerostat's lifting capability. The lower chamber of the hull is a pressurized air compartment. The hull is constructed of a lightweight polyurethane-coated Tedlar fabric. An airborne engine drives the ...
In order to provide buoyancy, any lifting gas must be less dense than the surrounding air. A hot air balloon is open at the bottom to allow hot air to enter, while the gas balloon is closed to stop the (cold) lifting gas from escaping. Common lifting gases have included hydrogen, coal gas and helium.
Ballonets are housed within these compartments in order to regulate gas pressure; these are inflated on the ground to increase density and reduce lift. [ citation needed ] Air and helium are not allowed to mix in the ballonets, thus enabling each to be furnished with valves and fans in order to increase and decrease air volume independently ...
The Union Army Balloon Corps was a branch of the Union Army during the American Civil War, established by presidential appointee Thaddeus S. C. Lowe.It was organized as a civilian operation, which employed a group of prominent American aeronauts and seven specially built, gas-filled balloons to perform aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate States Army.
The Ballon Generali is a tethered helium balloon, used as tourist attraction and as an air quality awareness tool. Installed in Paris since 1999 in the Parc André-Citroën, it was created and developed by the French company Aerophile SAS for the celebration of the year 2000. The balloon has lofted more than 500,000 passengers into the sky ...
The 1785 Rozière balloon, is the main type of hybrid balloon, named after its creator, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. It has a separate cell for a lighter-than-air gas (typically helium), as well as a cone below for hot air (as is used in a hot air balloon) to heat the helium at night.
Helium storage and conservation is a process of maintaining supplies of helium and preventing wasteful loss. Helium is commercially produced as a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Until the mid-1990s, the United States Bureau of Mines operated a large scale helium storage facility to support government requirements for helium.