History of Balloons

Navy Training Film MN-277a, History of Balloons, offers a detailed history of man’s attempts to conquer the air. The otherwise dry material spiced up with a voice actor imitating W.C. Fields, a movie star most of the trainees would have grown up with. The film was made late in WWII before there was enough “sour” helium (recovered, but too impure for airships) to use to inflate training balloons, that are necessarily ripped in the field. The film attempts to instill respect for the lifting gas with a staged demonstration featuring an OPEN (!) can supposedly containing hydrogen to illustrate flammability. Actual H2 combustion requires oxygen and an ignition source, and then it is carbonless and clear. It is “shown” by holding a paper over it, which visibly catches fire. Topping that, another OPEN can labeled “H2 air” is approached cautiously with a long matchstick, the resulting can-lifting blast giving a loud report. Of course, pure H2 is inert, and could not sit in an open can to mix with air in concentrations remaining flammable in much more time that it took to pry a lid off. Neither is an H2-O2 mix capable of explosive yield if not contained, even when presented with an ignition source. This cute little fraud hopefully kept many a student from smoking around balloons. Details of the aerostatic training routine are given, preparing the students for the day when engine power is lost, and the airship had to be flown like a free balloon.