Candle Powered Hot Air Balloon

Step 6

It's an amazing feeling when your creation first gets lift and starts to take off.

At this stage, there's about ten thousand things that could go wrong. Carefully think everything through before you actually do it.

I tied some thread to mine so I could fly it inside our warehouse without it getting away and setting the place on fire.

It will drip a lot of hot wax, so keep it over the cardboard if possible. Also, if you let the candles burn all the way down, the balsa will catch on fire. I am currently experimenting with other types of candles to prevent this.

Fly safe!

Comments

[IncrediblyCondensedBlackMatter]

modded dollar store lighters would work i think. take off the metal cover and set the flame real high. tape it to the frame, tape the button down, then light it with another lighter. light fuel source and would go for a while. not very wind resistant tho, and probably a fire hazard......

[Huntman00]

yea it is a fire hazard cause if the flame is BIG and it burns for a while the valve starts to melt then it kinda just explodes.... its actually pretty cool to watch

[wbsbadboy]

A word to the wise here. I think it was around 1989 when a close friend was launching these about once a week or so just to hear the reaction on his police scanner. Well one night he launched one and it started a fire on a wood shake shingle roof about a mile away. He had no idea that this had happened as he didn't listen to the fire department frequencies. Just the police. Two more launches and they had his general area down to a three block radius. Two weeks later he was arrested and charged with Arson. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Police said that he was lucky that no one was killed or injured. If someone would have been killed he would have faced premeditated murder charges. If injured he would have faced attempted murder charges. Please do not launch these things as "UFOs". Keep them teathered or inside. Here in California it is illegal to release anything that is burning that is not short lived (like a bottle rocket or fireworks that leave the ground). These balloons are easily carried miles away still burning. If you are caught you could face up to a year in jail, and/or fines up to 5,000.00 for the first offence. Be Safe, Be Sure, and Be Happy Best, Smitty

[mondaymonkey]

How did your friend get 4 years in prison when towards the end, you said you could face up to 1 year in prison?

[wbsbadboy]

He was convicted of arson. Just getting cought doing this without burning something down can get you a year

[rendermatt]

haha wow thanks for the info

[flamesami]

hmm...maybe you could make a "kid-safe", indoor version....
If you substituted the candles for a VERY small weight, and used a non-attached hair-dryer as a heat source, you could have several on the go at once, with no fire hazard...not as fun without fire though...

[FurtherThanTesla]

I recently got inrested in rigid zepplins, and wanted to build an RC non-rigid blimp< however, found myself lacking any helium. I figured i coul make a mini hot air balloon and put RC fans on it... i would have a flap controled by a servo to redirect heat from the flame to lift of lower the balloon...

[FilAmFighter01]

I saw this done before from the American Boys Handy Book, by Neally Croft just different materials. I like the new materials being used. BIG Caution is Balloons can start fires easly, carefull where you fly them!

[devon1996]

what do u need to make it

[oakspoor]

GREAT BOOK!!

[matrix43547]

I'm pretty sure the american boys handy book is by Dan beard.

[Metalcaster14]

Yeah its Daniel Carter Beard. Also that's a paper balloon and a ball of twine soaked in alcohol

[Legend in your Mind]

Probably not a good idea, but maybe not.. If your baloon is big enough and you use a material not so suceptible to heat how about experimenting with something like a warning flare? Of course your balloon is going top have to be much bigger than what is pictured here and flares do give of ash and embers.. Another idea if you have a big enough balooon is how about a semi-remote fuel source from the ground using a very thin plastic tube? That way you can cut off the fuel source and heat when needed. Or with micro electronics I'm sure someone could figure a way to use a model airplane remote controller to control a heat source from the ground and maybe even a remote control vent to let heat escape instantly in the event of a run away wind gust carrying your flying arson package over a crowded populated area...just a thought. I'm not smart enough to do the details, but the ideas i can cook up all day long. ;)

[lukeyj15]

 u could use butane

[SPININSPUR]

what about an oil lamp wick with wicks on the the long axis for more flame area and a contained tank for fuel?not sure right now what kind of tank.suggestions?

[throttlehog]

 You gotta remember that weight is the most important factor here...

[stephenniall]

What i was thinking . Maybe a Tupperware rectangular box with 4 or more wicks in with methalated spirits as a fuel ??

[Nykus79]

Look! It's Balloon boy!

[Commsman]

Try inflating the balloon using a hair dryer first - then it will only need a small slow burning device to keep it aloft.

[fred_dot_u]

or a hot air gun, commonly used to shrink monocote on model aircraft. 500 deg F heat will also melt the plastic used, so caution is advised.

[TechnoDave]

I just found this site today but remarkably I made one of these just yesterday! I use dry cleaning bags but the principle is the same. I also tie fishing line to mine so they don't fly off and start a forest or house fire. When I was a kid we made one that flew forever - people called in to the radio station saying it was a UFO - very funny.

[hot-fresh-rider]

Technically yes it was an Unidentified Flying Object. Don't let Hollywood muddy the water between UFO's and ET. The two are completely separate topics. Most UFO's are military test vehicles.

[Roger408]

Made a bunch of these when in college. We'd use colored cellophane, a different color on each side (4 or 6) and a small vent to one side at the top to encourage them to rotate slowly while flying. On a cold clear winter's night the UFO calls would go on for hours... When starting them out, use a hair dryer for the initial inflation.

[TJH54]

I did a similar hot air balloon in High School. I used a thin plastic trash bag, Four single strands of copper wire taken from speaker wire. I used aluminum foil to make a gondola to hold a small amount of sterno for the fuel.

[dbguettl]

I remember doing this years ago. We took a slightly different approach. 1. We used a really big trash bag made from very thin plastic. I don't remember the size or the thickness. 2. We took some really thin music wire and made an x. 3. Then we cut the bottom off of a coke can and mounted it in the center of the x. We mounted it with copper wire. You have to mount it so the bottom of the can faces up to make a "bowl" for the fuel. 4. Using tape, we taped the music wire/coke can assembly to the bottom of the trash bag. (similar to how you used he balsa 5. For the fuel, we made a tee pee with some scrap balsa, superglued it in place, and doused it with model airplane fuel (this just happened to be what we had lying around). Other flamable fluid such as alcohol should work too. 6. We had to light a piece of wood and hold it under the bag to pre-inflate the bag with hot air, then we set off the fuel/wood and let it go. It was great to do in the evenings when the wind was calm. It would fly 100-200 feet before coming down. Just be careful. On one flight, it got knocked around by a gust of wind and the fuel fell out and fell to the ground. I've always wanted to do it again and try using sterno as fuel.

[siliconghost]

I've done this using sterno and it works really well.

[Ssiatha]

could I suggest some alfoil wrapped cardboard under the candles? it'd stop wax drips and you need not worry about candles burning down. attach /w glue obviousley

[saum]

i wanted to ask u if i could put a small box at the bootom. like a real hot air balloon

[5Toes]

So I was just thinking... You could make a good heat source using gasoline. You could add two tanks to the frame.. that are small. So about 10 fluid ounces all together. Add a fuel line to each and make a it very small, so the flame wont get out of control, or too big!!! Take the two fuel lines, and add a small flame resistant plate above. The plate should be about 2 inches in diameter. Add a flame source to the middle of this plate and the gasoline lines directly under it. With some experimentation the tubes with gas should act much like a lighter!!

[El-Butchio]

if you made the baloon bigger it would be able to carry much heavier weights, as long as you incresed the heat produced. this is easily done by soaking cotton wool in spirits or meths, however i do not know how this could be efficiently contained without embers from the cotton floating upwards into the baloon and burning a hole in it. Also, DO NOT use petrol as fuel in this projest as it has a tendency to make the air too hot for the balloon to withstand and melts it, causing burning petrol to spill onto you from above which may hurt you a bit.

[Ribs]

Me and my dad id that once using mehs. and it worked quite well. we put the meths and cotton wool in a tinfoil dish.

[samando]

OR if you have a tiki-torch you could use the oil-wick from that

[GladBagCosmonaut]

We have a product in the Czech Republic called "PEPO", which looks like white chalk and is used to start campfires(and power hot air balloons 8-] ). I don't know if you can get it elsewhere but it is perfect, light, will not blow out or drip and has a good hot flames. Look it up at Google and try to order it, it is cheap and u will be satisfied.

[90mp11]

It's possible octane blocks...we have those in the UK under the gereal term "firelighting blocks". Their white, waxy and crumbly but burn really well for a long period if you don;t crumble them up. The finer dust you make, the hotter theflame and shorter the burn time

[PyroMonger]

this sounds abit like flash powder...is there alot of smoke produced when lit?

[samando]

i couldnt find it on google

[Psyzygy]

Zip BBQ lighters! Great idea; put half of one in a cup-cake cup. One tea-light doesn't produce enough heat to carry it's own weight. I like the idea of a re-lighting candle too - tape several together and set them in a tea-light cup. Nah! maybe not... it'd be a bit too incendiary. One surrounded by normal ones would probably be safer. Bin-bag looks good too. I'll do it!

[Yokel]

Nah, what he's describing is Barbecue lighter (in solid form). I'm sure we had it in N. America

[gregr]

I'm pretty sure that GladBagCosmonaut is talking about Esbit. You can find it in good camping/backpacking stores or online.