Questacon > Teachers > Questacon Balloon

Questacon Balloon

You can ride the Questacon balloon on an early morning flight over Canberra, or book it for tethered daytime rides for students (and teachers) at your school!

About the balloon

Here are some interesting facts and figures about the balloon:

• the Questacon balloon is the largest of the passenger balloons flying over Canberra and can carry up to 10 passengers.
• It is as high as an eight story building.
• The envelope volume is 210 000 cubic feet (5950 m³) and contains about 7000 kg of air.
• When heated to 100°C the balloon envelope will lift two tonnes.
• The envelope is the first of type in Australia with 28 gores, or vertical panels. Most other envelopes are either 20 or 24 gore. The effect of the additional gores is a much smoother surface for displaying the Questacon artwork.
• The envelope is constructed from over 2000 m² of high temperature nylon fabric and it weighs over 200 kg.
• The balloon can operate at a range of altitudes from sea level to 30 000 ft (9140 m) but will generally not exceed 4000 ft (1220 m) over Canberra.

More information

• The History of Hot Air Balloons
• Science and Hot Air Balloons
• There are balloon activities in the March 2002 Q Club Member's Newsletter (pdf, 611 kB)
• Questacon's Balloonatic Spectacular Science Show.

The balloon is managed and flown by Balloon Aloft Canberra. You can contact them on 02 6285 1540, or via balloon@bigpond.net.au.

Balloon Aloft also have their own website: http://www.balloon.canberra.net.au.

How Stuff Works have a great ballooning resource: http://travel.howstuffworks.com/hot-air-balloon.htm.

And for links to dozens of teacher reviewed websites about ballooning, check out http://www.studyweb.com/links/6382.html .

Thanks to Ewan Roberts at Balloon Aloft Canberra for the technical information. We have used imperial units in this article to reflect worldwide aviation standards.