Flying over the whole world

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 14:47:55 +0000

Balloon

In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy.

Principles

A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter.

The first balloon which carried passengers used hot air to obtain buoyancy and was built by the brothers Josef and Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France in the first passenger flight was carrying a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.

The first tethered manned balloon flight was by a larger Montgolfier balloon, probably on 15 October 1783. The first free balloon flight was by the same Montgolfier balloon on 21 November 1783.

Gas balloons

A man-carrying balloon using the light gas hydrogen for buoyancy was made by Professor Jacques Charles and flown less than a month after the Montgolfier flight, on 1 December 1783. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can also stay up for much longer than hot air, so gas balloons dominated ballooning for the next 200 years. In the 19th century, it was common to use town gas to fill balloons; this was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, having about half the lifting power, but it was much cheaper and readily available.

The beautiful mountain peak

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 14:35:46 +0000

Summit

A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation. The topographic terms „acme“, „apex“, „peak“, and „zenith“ are synonyms.

„Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.“Dag Hammarskjold

Definition

The term „summit“ is generally only used for a mountain peak with some significant amount of topographic prominence height above the lowest point en route to the nearest higher peak.

Near a higher peak

Summits near a higher peak, with some prominence or isolation, but not reaching a certain cutoff value for these quantities, are often considered subsummits.

A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top. Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway, or railroad. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit (not to be confused with Donner Pass, which is located just to the south.)

Mountain – Patch of Heaven