Jaunted

Space Tourism / Science Travel / Space Travel / Hot Air Balloons / → All Tags

Hey, Who Wants to Go to Space in a Giant Hot Air Balloon?

As part of our ongoing effort to track space tourism competition—because how else is the price ever going to drop enough so we can afford it—please turn your attention to the bloon.

Designed by Spanish entrepreneur Jose Lopez-Urdiales, the bloon is a sub-orbital device (kind of) that takes people to space (in a manner of speaking) and is scheduled to start flying in 2013 (theoretically). We're hedging on this description because the bloon isn't so much a spaceship like we've all become used to, as much as it is a really big hot air balloon.

The project webpage is reasonably slick, though the branding is kind of gratingly New Agey. There's lots of hand waving about going to "a place where borders do not really exist" and "where creation becomes real," with a promise to "help awaken consciousness of the unique, fragile beauty of our planet" so that you can become "one with your home planet." If we didn't know better we'd think it was kind of a parody, but other parts of the site seem reasonably straightforward.

more ›

Summer Festivals / Events / New Jersey Travel / Hot Air Balloons / → All Tags

Over 100 Hot Air Balloons Take to New Jersey's Skies Really Soon

When you think of hot air balloons you might think of the big shindig over in Albuquerque, but for those in the Northeast there’s a pretty good festival coming up that might just require a little road trip rather than a flight. The QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning takes place in just a couple of weeks, as it’s set to run between July 29 and July 31 at the Solberg Airport in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

They’ve got like at least 100 different balloons of all different shapes and sizes—including a butterfly, a shark, and the biggest can of Pepsi you’ve ever seen—that will hit the skies altogether twice per day. Besides the balloons there’s a 5K, a lady who shoots herself from a cannon, and 200 different vendors selling crafts and other goodies.

more ›

Luxury Travel / Technology / Green Travel / Balloons / Hot Air Balloons / → All Tags

We've Seen The Future, And It's A Floating Luxury Hotel Airship

Would you spend 37 hours on a trans-Atlantic flight between New York and London? What if it was on a space-age balloon designed to gently float above the ocean at almost 12,000ft and glide through the air at a leisurely 90mph, dipping lower if there was anything interesting and then rising back into the atmosphere to continue on its path? That's the vision provided by UK design company Seymourpowell, which has invented a 265m kite-shaped airship and dubbed it the Aircruise. The ship boasts a cutting-edge ecofriendly design, is powered by solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells, and has virtually no environmentally damaging emissions. And it looks mindblowingly awesome.

The predictable downside of course, is that a trip on the Aircruise isn't going to come cheap. If it was easy to use heated gas to lift things off the ground we would do it more often. But as we all know from looking at hot air balloons, you need a lot of space to carry just a little bit of weight. In this case, you need 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas to hoist just 396 total tonnes, meaning that the Aircruise won't have much leftover room for people. Since a high cost per passenger was inevitable, the designers just went ahead and transformed the entire ship into a luxury travel "hotel in the sky."

more ›

Labor Day Travel / Hot Air Balloons / Summer Festivals / Events / → All Tags

Up, Up, and Away At New York State's Hot Air Balloon Fest

If you’ll be chilling in upstate New York this Labor Day weekend, you may want to consider a little more action than just chowing down a couple of white hots off the grill. The New York State Festival of Balloons is taking place all weekend in Dansville, and it’s only about an hour south of Rochester. There will be plenty of food, arts and crafts, entertainment, and a huge amount of hot air balloons. You can even camp right at the festival in case you get stuck with overnight balloon duty.

To celebrate their 28th year running, organizers will kick things off on September 3 with their Thursday Night Balloon Glow. Swing by the town’s municipal airport to see the balloons fire up their burners and watch them shine in the night sky. Maybe if you’re lucky you can sweet-talk a pilot into a free ride over the weekend.

more ›

Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Hot Air Balloons / Labor-Day-Travel / → All Tags

Summer Vacations With An Edge: Hot Air Ballooning

Summer's winding down, but the long Labor Day weekend means there's still time for one last Summer Vacation with an Edge.

What better way to honor the workers whose blood and sweat built America's prosperity than by indulging in the fruit of their labors? This Labor Day weekend, soar above the amber-waves-of-grain and purple-mountain-majesty in a hot air balloon. For about $500 a, uh, pop, couples can hire a balloon for a private romantic ride.

Northeast city dwellers have plenty of options on the outskirts of town. Bostoners can head to High 5 Ballooning in nearby Derry, N.H., while New York City residents have multiple options in nearby New Jersey and upstate New York, including Alexandria Balloon Flights.

For the frugal traveler, group flights cost between $150 and $200 per person, meaning ballooning isn't exclusively for the uber-rich. Take that, Branson.

Related Stories
· High 5 Ballooning [Official Site]
· Alexandria Balloon Flights [Official Site]
· Summer Vacations With An Edge [Jaunted]

[Photo: heartlover1717]