Our Hot Air Balloon

We had the following instructions::

You need a roll of light, airtight paper (approx. 20 m long and 25 cm broad). You cut out 12 strips, which each have a length of 1.5 m, a width of 25 cm at the broadest places in the middle and 6.5 cm at the bottom. The top has to be pointed - see picture.

Now you glue the strips together side by side until you get a spherical balloon. The glued seams have to be sealed properly so that the hot air can’t escape anywhere.

The burner is made from empty beverage cans. Cut them at a height of 4 cm and bend the rim outwards. Now pierce 4 holes into the cans and tighten 2 wires crosswise so that the burning cotton wool can’t tumble out.

Next, bend a piece of wire into a circle with a diameter of approximately 20 cm onto which the balloon will be fixed with flaps. The last thing you have to do is to join the balloon and the burner with wires.

On the 24th of June we drove to a farm in Porrau and took our balloon with us. We wanted to fly the balloon on a field path. Therefore we carefully drenched some cotton wool with methylated spirits and lit it. Sadly, our balloon didn’t fly but burned down instead..