"Authorities were scouring the skies Thursday for a 6-year-old boy who unhooked his family's experimental balloon-powered aircraft and floated away from home, sheriff's officials said."
posted by empath on Oct 15, 2009 - 1463 comments

Lauching a HD video camera into space using a balloon. And retrieving it in one piece.
posted by Jimbob on Sep 23, 2009 - 38 comments

A "Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope" ( BLAST) has made 2 science flights. The documentry Blast! is as much about science as it is about the crazy life of scientists. [more inside]
posted by kudzu on Jul 20, 2009 - 5 comments

The 56-Euros-and-a-balloon teenage Catalonian space program.
posted by digaman on Mar 17, 2009 - 37 comments

Jason Hackenwerth's balloon twisting sculptures
posted by chuckdarwin on Oct 17, 2008 - 17 comments

The Story of Blossom the Brave Balloon.
posted by dersins on Jan 15, 2008 - 12 comments

Surely this must be a double, right? I mean, you've got this great and strange program, Addi's Inflatable Minute, and this incredibly strange but somewhat haunting instrument and its all in one You Tube Link? People don't actually make this sort of content in real life, do they?
posted by Ogre Lawless on Jan 11, 2008 - 30 comments

In 1897, pioneering Swedish balloonist Salomon August Andrée and two companions took off for the north pole in a hot air balloon. In 1930 their bodies were found, along with records of their expedition. This archive of newspaper articles tells their story. (So does Wikipedia, of course.) Many of the photos they took are here, along with a lot of text in Polish that I can't read any more than most of you can, so don't come complaining to me.
posted by dersins on Oct 8, 2007 - 12 comments

Bre and his friends make things like space ballons. Sometimes they launch them and are unable to find them. Although the project has been abandoned the videos are very informative and show what amazing things a small team with a little money and off-the-self technology could do. Earlier this year a Canadian team had success with their space balloon and got some amazing aerial photos.
posted by damn dirty ape on Oct 7, 2007 - 9 comments

The latest launch of the amateur enthusiast group Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiments was a success.
posted by Burhanistan on Aug 30, 2007 - 31 comments

These days, you don't have to be rich to have all the right stuff, at least for the night. Going deep or flying high, these days you don't have to be rich, to pretend. Just a good credit card, and no thought for the future.
posted by nomisxid on Jul 19, 2007 - 8 comments

Gonna free fall out into nothin' YouTube has several videos of Joe Kittinger's skydive from a balloon at 102,800 feet. Earlier this year Colonel Kittinger described the jump at a meeting of the Athanasius Kircher Society (Named after this guy.) [via; more inside]
Previous post with more info.
posted by kirkaracha on May 24, 2007 - 29 comments

Here's a set of some great balloon popping photography from the Maker Faire this past weekend. My favorites: 1, 2, 3
posted by soplerfo on May 22, 2007 - 19 comments

Huge gently floating bombs made their way across the pacific below balloons using the high altitude jet streams floated to the Americas during WWII. Kept secret for most of the war, you can read about their amazing history here.
posted by lee on May 6, 2007 - 37 comments

In 1982 "Lawnchair" Larry Walters tied about 40-45 4' helium-filled weather balloons to a Sears lawnchair and launched himself from San Pedro, California to rise to over 16,000 feet. Here is the audio recording of the CB communications of that flight, available with much more information from this page via markbarry.com.
(Warnings: Audio is Real Audio - use Real Alternative. First half of audio may contain recordings of extremely panicked and strident girlfriend.)
posted by loquacious on Dec 23, 2006 - 31 comments

Project Nova: on the 9th of September three Cambridge engineering students launched a balloon equipped with a camera and tracking devices. It reached a height of 32km and took 857 photographs during its three hour flight, some showing the curvature of the earth. You can also download a KML file to follow the balloon's flight path in Google Earth.
posted by jack_mo on Sep 23, 2006 - 24 comments

Airigami, the art of folding air in specially prepared latex containers includes the flying octopus, giant soccer players, and many others. [via growabrain]
posted by Armitage Shanks on Apr 12, 2006 - 10 comments

"It was the quickest way down." On August 16, 1960, Joe Kittinger jumped from a helium balloon at 102,800 feet, over 19 miles up. After free-falling for four and a half minutes and reaching 614 MPH, almost breaking the sound barrier, he opened his parachute at 18,000 feet and landed safe and sound after an almost 14 minute descent. He set records for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest freefall and fastest speed by a man through the atmosphere. [more inside]

"I didn't hear a sonic boom; I didn't even hear any whooshing or whistling of the wind. But when I flipped over and looked back at my balloon, it sure was an eerie sight--the sky was black as night but I was bathed in sunshine."

posted by kirkaracha on Mar 26, 2006 - 48 comments

Balloon crashes and injures two people at Macy's Parade. A giant M&M balloon broke loose in the wind and crashed into a light pole at yesterday's Thanksgiving Parade in New York, knocking the light into a crowd and injuring two people. NBC, the network broadcasting the parade, was the only news crew that did not report the event, instead, cutting to a clip of the balloon from last year.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Nov 25, 2005 - 23 comments

Darth Vader Butter Sculpture. This was featured at the Tulsa State Fair, as one their annual butter scultpures. We've got Darth on our minds, right up there with the ultimate father figure while still making the usual dorky fan art (balloons, balloon masks).
posted by beezy on Oct 25, 2005 - 21 comments

Mr. Blonde's "Interrogation" (direct link to video) recreated with balloons.
via
posted by fenriq on Aug 17, 2005 - 21 comments

Urballoon: "a balloon equipped with a projector and wireless connection to the web that enables people to submit content online and broadcast it in public spaces." Today's the last day to submit for projection in NY.
posted by dobbs on Oct 3, 2004 - 4 comments

Balloon basket for sale. Low mileage. Only used by possibly the smartest man on the planet. [via linkdump]
posted by mr_crash_davis on Nov 13, 2003 - 17 comments

escaped robo balloon will we be seeing more of this in coming years? this story is amusing - and perhaps a caution? via the always good yewnkee.com
posted by specialk420 on Jul 16, 2003 - 5 comments

Addi Somekh and Charlie Eckert travel around the world, photographing people wearing their spur-of-the-moment, whimsical balloon hats. It's hard not to smile when you have an inflatable, multi-colored crown on your head. Via obsessive Magnificent Obsessions.
posted by iconomy on Dec 3, 2002 - 21 comments

Hot air balloons! Great site out of Belgium with a database of 850 balloons from all over the world, from panda bears (Japan) to yellow submarines (Russia), and including multiple versions of such shapes as Humpty Dumpty, Tony theTiger, and (especially) liqour bottles. And check out the album. Any balloonists out there?
posted by ferris on Dec 26, 2001 - 12 comments