Long before the first airplanes took to the skies, humans had already overcome gravity with the help of airships. Starting ...

Each balloon also carries 350 lbs. of iron shot for ballast. The balloon is designed to float at the altitude (about 30,000 ft.) where air pressure is 300 millibars. When it loses buoyancy as ...

Before the Wright Brothers powered their way across the sands of Kitty Hawk or Otto Lilienthal soared from the hills of Germany, enveloping hot air in a balloon ... the need for ballast when ...

but upon throwing over a bag of ballast for the purpose ot lightening his car, the hook of the bag caught upon some of the rigging attached to the balloon, below and out of his reach, thus ...

Hot air balloons might seem like magic, but there is a lot of physics at play behind their ascent. Hot air balloons might seem like magic, but there is a lot of physics at play behind their ascent.