Cameron
Balloons Ltd. -- our counterpart in the UK, recently performed
the certification test flights for a Z-600 (600,000 cu.ft.) balloon.
The enormous hot-air balloon was flown with sand ballast to replicate
the weight of the passengers. This is the largest passenger balloon
built to date by Cameron Balloons, despite buidling a 20+ passenger
500,000 cu. ft. balloon with a double-decker basket nearly 30 years
ago.
This solid red envelope was built for Magic Horizon in Egypt. The
32-passenger basket is 20 ft long and nearly 5 ft wide and has
its own trailer and winch system to assist the crew to manage it.
The basket alone weighs nearly a thousand pounds, and the entire
system took about 20 weeks to build.
The envelope stands about 125 ft tall and 110 feet wide. It consumed
over 2700 yards of fabric and nearly 12 miles of thread. The gross
lift of the balloon is 12,000 lb. |
