Ballooning > Extreme Flying > Extreme

• Susan Genett's Real Weather - Knowledgable weather consultants advise pilots on special flights. Forecasting for long jumps, trans-oceanic flights, balloon races and festivals, and gas ballooning. The head forecaster is also a balloon pilot!
  
   
• The Flying Kettle Project - The Flying Kettle Project - balloons and airships filled with steam! Pictures of the experiments, descriptions of the theory of lifting a balloon with steam instead of gas or hot air.
  
   
• Paraglider launching from Balloon - Photos showing Dave Prentice launching a custom paraglider from a hot air balloon at altitude.
  
   
• Cluster Balloon Flight Page - Solo flight with multiple smaller helium-filled balloons. Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons? That's the idea here, all about how to do it, pictures, and John Ninomoya's schedule of launches at festivals.
  
   
• BBC News - Balloonists helped by Gagarin's team - Boris Mikhajlov, the man who designed the pressure suit for Yuri Gargarin, the first man in space designs suit for around the world balloon attempt.
  
   
• Beyond Big Blue - A world record attempt at the highest recorded free fall from 120 000 feet over South Africa.
  
   
• Cloudhopper.org - Smaller, one-person balloons are covered in detail. A Cloudhopper is a single-person hot-air balloon.  There is no basket: the pilot wears a harness that is attached to the balloon, with a fuel tank and burner situated behind him or her. Lots of pictures, reports from flights and solo-balloon festivals, review of balloon manufacturers, and why you'd want a cloudhopper.
  
   
• Cluster Balloon flight in Dansville, NY - This year, I was sponsored by the New York State Festival of Balloons to fly a helium cluster balloon at their event.  This would be my first public cluster flight, and it gave me an entirely new perspective on the term "festival of balloons"....  Details and pictures of John Ninomoya's launch beneath colorful weather balloons. Also, animated .gif of the launch.<BR>
  
   
• Dropping Hang Gliders From Balloons - Article reviewing several record setting hang glider flights launching from hot air balloons.
  
   
• Early Hot Air Ballooning in Australia - This covers the revival of HA Ballooning in Australia around 1960. Building, flying, crashes. Large section on flight theory and airships.
  
   
• History of the Small Balloon - Article by Glen Moyer on the development and use of one man balloons.
  
   
• Millenium Challenge 2000 - The race and the site for fans of extreme ballooning. Fly from Bimini to Florida.
  
   
• One Man Meet - Reviews of the annual festival for solo balloons like cloudhoppers. Typically held in England. Event details.
  
   
• Paragliding from a Balloon - Paraglider pilot David Prentice flies to altitude in the balloon and launches his wing from a custom-built deployment bag. A photo essay on launching a paraglider from balloons.
  
   
• Smoke Ballooning - Peter Krieg, the only smoke balloonist in the world, performed this ascent in Hudson, Wisconsin in February 1998. Pictures and text document each step.
  
   
• Solar Balloons - Pictures, history and theory of solar balloons. Includes pure solar balloons and some modern compromises.
  
   
• Solar Balloons : Yahoo! Groups - Solar balloon discussion group for learning more about solar balloons (hot-air balloons that are heated by the sun).
  
   
• Dan Buchanan's Flying Colors - Photos exploring carrying hang gliders aloft under a balloon and launching the hang glider in a free-fall drop from the balloon.
  
   
• Rekord im Doppelpack - Project setting the female altitude world record and the Austrian national freefall record, by jumping from a balloon. Written in German.