Leading The Way
Lindstrand Balloons lead the way in aerospace technology and are working closely with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Washington and the European Space Agency in Holland.

To date the Lindstrand team have designed, manufactured and type-certified hot air balloons currently operating in 48 countries. The company has produced the largest ever hot air balloon that was 73,600m³ and the largest ever manned super-pressure balloon 36,086m, the largest ever thermal airship 8,500m³ together with the GA-42 helium airship 26m long x 1,190m. In excess of 100 hot airships and gas balloons both helium and hydrogen capable have been produced.

It is the expertise of the Lindstrand team which pioneered the development of the world’s first thermal airship fabric, this is now the aviation industry standard. Much of the machinery used at Lindstrand Balloons is unique and is largely developed in-house. We offer a comprehensive machine shop and full electronic/electrical workshop. Lindstrand Balloons has designed, developed and built specialist machinery for projects which include the most sophisticated manned balloon ever built, the ICO Global Round The World Balloon.

B1-test Balloon
Lindstrand Balloons built a 14,000m³ super-pressure balloon that carried a 47Ghz test transmitter in order to investigate propagation characteristics at 70,000ft. This balloon was equipped with amorphous silicon solar cells and had full-date logging for documenting heat building up inside the balloon.

HALE Study (High Altitude Long Endurance Programme)
In December 1998 the European Space Agency (ESA) awarded Lindstrand Balloons a design study contract for a geostationery stratospheric unmanned airship.

Balloon Developments include:
The world’s first type-certified thermal airship, first use of silicone impregnated balloon fabrics, first use of a synthetic envelope material (approved for hydrogen gas), first solar balloon, first sustained manned flight in the Jetstream and the first balloon capsule with active pressurisation.

Stratospheric Platforms (Absolute Hot Air Altitude record)
This record was set on 6^th June 1988 over Laredo, Texas, and the maximum altitude for just under 65,000ft and has never been challenged.

The balloon envelope had a volume of 17,000m³ and was manufactured from aluminised PET film laminated to ripstop nylon fabric. The reason for the aluminised outer layer was to reduce emissivity particularly at high altitude where the radiation losses would have been enormous. The fuel used for the burner was a mixture of propane/hydrogen and isopropylnitrate. The burners were specifically built for the project and were tested at the LUCAS Aerospace high altitude chamber at Burnley. The capsule was built from aluminium and the internal atmosphere was 7,500m with the pilot using 100% oxygen all the time and with a partial pressure suit as an emergency back-up.

Sky Station
LBL's involvement with Sky Station goes back to early 1995 and was contracted as their sole platform supplier from November 1996 to June 1998.

In the early beginnings of the co-operation Sky Station worked on a small-scale model of Dr. Wong's Corona Ion engine. The airship concept was an unworkable twin hull design linked with a large flat section. LBL immediately advised Sky Station that this was totally unworkable and suggested a conventional single hull driven by a propeller/electric motor. It was evident that the Corona Ion engine would never deliver the required thrust.

In November 1996 LBL signed a contract with Sky Station as their exclusive platform supplier and for the production of the initial batch of airship hulls. The first job within this contract was to build a test balloon with a super-pressure design intended to fly at 70,000ft, but Sky Station run out of money before the test was completed. This balloon is now in storage at LBL, Oswestry.

Due to Sky Station's lack of money LBL more or less ceased to work with Sky Station but the contract remained in force until June 1998 when it was cancelled by Sky Station.

ULDB – NASA
The ULDB programme (Ultra Long Distance Balloon) was initiated by NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Washington in order to prolong the flight time for scientific balloons by introducing upper-pressure technology.

NOFO
In 1993 Lindstrand Balloons supplied a tethered aerostat to the Norwegian Oil Spill Recovery Organisation which carried an on-board camera, this enabled pictures to be relayed back to the Captain of the ship, to allow him to survey the affected area.

Even from the days of the giant Zeppelins people have been talking about using airships to transport cargo.
The problems have always been that most standard aviation cargos have been transported using heavier than air machines . Whilst these are expensive they have the advantage of being very quick and today most peoples expectations are of receiving a courier express package in one or two days, almost anywhere in the world.

At the other end of the scale is sea freight. The main advantage of sea freight is that weight and size of shipment is rarely a problem. However the biggest hindrance here is the time in shipping.
Cargolifter have identified that there is definitely a market for "medium" speed delivery service of large, heavy, high value items. Consequently they have embarked on a very ambitious process of creating a new airship in order to fulfil this market requirement.

The main Cargo lifter CL 160 will probably have a payloads volume capability of 50m x 8m x 8m. The airship is envisaged as being 270m long, making it the largest aircraft ever built. Structurally it is being designed using the best aspects of its forerunner airships, whilst utilizing the benefits that can be achieved from advances in modern materials.
Obviously no design organization would entertain building an airship of this size without proving some of the more critical technologies at a more modest size.

For an FFTU, which is much smaller 1050 cubic metres volume, around 30m long airship. The airship which is known as Joey, will be used to demonstrate, test and prove the following technologies:-

Inter-relationship between rigid keels and non-rigid envelope.
Use of individual gas bags within an outer structural skin.
Performance of differing gas bag material
Individual and co-ordinate control of multiple thrust motors and bow stern thruster units.

Obviously the benefits of the Joey envelope extend into operational and logistical research as well, including:

Pilot training
Ground Handling
Airship positioning control

Lindstrand Balloons Limited were chosen as the most suitable company to design, in liaison with Cargolifter Development GmbH the main outer skin structure for the Joey airship.

The outer skin is the main structural part of the airship and is the one component upon which all others are mounted. This means that close co-operation was required between five European companies in order to achieve the desired goals.
The Joey envelope was delivered in May for the first fitting procedure of all exterior hardware, including keel, fin structure, nose cone and gondola. The envelope is now back with Lindstrand for the second stage construction. We count ourselves fortunate that we have the opportunity to collaborate on this major new airship construction project.
For more information visit the CargoLifter website.

Global Challenger
A balloon by definition cannot be driven but has to rely entirely on the wind as its mooring force. The strongest winds are in the tropopause and are called ‘Jet streams’
The technique to place a balloon inside the jet stream was initiated by Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand during the transatlantic hot air balloon crossing in 1987 and later perfected during the first Transpacific hot air balloon crossing in 1991. The latter flight averaged 127 knots from take-off in Japan to landing in Canada with peak speeds over 200 knots

For ultra long endurance balloon flights in the troposhpere the Roziere principle reigns supreme. This consists of a helium cell located on top of a hot air cell. The envelope stands 68m tall and has a helium cell with a volume of 36,086m³ which will result in a lifting capacity of 14 tonnes at cruising altitude. Altogether the envelope will use over 24kms of fabric and film and it is joined by thermal welding on machine tools specially constructed for this purpose. This is the largest super-pressure balloon ever built and the largest man carrying fabric balloon. The construction time for the envelope is three months and total envelope weight is 2.5 tonnes.

In December 1998 the ICO Global balloon flew for 71/2 days and covered 20,500kms in a flight from Morocco to Hawaii covering 60% of the world's circumference. The flight was terminated due to a weather trough hindering further flying and landed with 6 days of fuel remaining.

Sky Dive from Space
LBL is developing a project involving a parachute descent from a gas balloon where the skydiver will exit at 130,000ft for a free fall to 15,000ft when he will deploy his parachute for landing. All initial engineering work has been completed and the Russian space suit designer Zwezda has designed an appropriate space suit for this project. LBL will design and build all other equipment. The gas balloon envelope volume is 425,000m³ and is a zero pressure design built from polyethylene film.

More details to follow

Lindstrand Balloons Ltd - hot air balloons, gas balloons

Lindstrand Balloons Ltd. are manufacturers of hot air, gas balloons, airships, tethered aerostats and aeronautical fabric engineering products. Special products include inflatable buildings. Leaders in technology of all lighter-than-air products.

lindstrand balloons limited, hot air balloons, gas balloons, airships and blimps, lighter than air technology, inflateable buildings, special projects, aerostats and hiflyers

Hot Air Balloons Lindstrand Balloons has been supplying high quality hot air balloons since December 1991 and is proud of its reputation as a leader at the cutting edge of balloon technology. HiFlyer Presenting the ‘Lindstrand HiFlyer’ – an exciting and innovative business or hot air balloons theme park adventure. Located at key tourist sites, these passenger-carrying tethered balloons make money, BIG money. First seen in the skies over a hundred years ago,

hot air balloons gas balloons

this exciting 19th century gas balloons inspiration is brought right up to date with Lindstrands' aerospace technology Airships The Lindstrand HS110 is a new development in hot air Airships airships and blimps technology. It is built by the team that first pioneered pressurised airships in 1991 and continued to produce over 100 airships flying worldwide. Hot air Airships are designed primarily for the commercial operator. They are probably the safest aircraft available. lighter than air technology In the unlikely event of engine failure, the airship reverts to a hot air balloon and is flown and landed in the same way. Shapes Lindstrand Balloons are inflateable buildings renowned throughout the world for their design of complex special shaped envelopes.

airships and blimps special projects

All hot air balloons will attract attention - but shaped special projects balloons stand majestic, commanding aerial attention by observers on the ground. Special shapes make a dramatic appearance and are long remembered and photographed wherever they fly. Our design team will help turn your ideas into reality with a colourful visual of your aerostats and hiflyers proposed idea. Once approved, and with the use of our computer aided technology, we turn the visual into a full working drawing from which we start our manufacture of your very special shape.