Of all the reasons I'm fascinated by the early balloons, probably the foremost is the fact that it was in those first years, before everyone knew everything, that the innovation and exuberance of ballooning design reached its apex. Many designs simply copied commercial models, and many original ideas were undoubtedly abandoned for good reasons. Nevertheless, as in the early days of so many other endeavors, there was a feeling that anything was possible. Combine that with the spirit of the '60s and (at least the early) '70s as a whole, and you get a burst of creativity that exemplifies the best in every aeronaut.

Not too long ago, I was poking around on the U.S. Patent Office website, and ran across a patent granted to one Linden Harding, designer and builder of a number of balloons, including "Hail Atlantis," pictured at the top (and on the background) of this page, and billed as a "Transcom-Commodore." The patent doesn't describe "Hail Atlantis" exactly, but seems to share some features, so I decided to create a page dedicated to Harding's patent, and, by extension, "Hail Atlantis." View the Harding page here.

Recently, I learned of a balloon that deserved recognition on these pages, and set about to work with her owner and her friends to create a web page for this one-of-a-kind aerostat. I'm talking about Topper, built in 1975, flown every year since, and still flying today. She's a unique balloon, which is obvious at a glance. Many of her features were far ahead of their time, and despite the design's departure from what everyone else was doing, its soundness has been proven by Topper's having achieved the honor of being the oldest "experimental" balloon to have flown at least once a year. In fact, although at least one production balloon has been flying longer, it's not clear that it's flown every year. Therefore, Topper may even be the oldest continuously-flown balloon, period. Either way, she's worth a look, and worth wishing another 30-plus years in the air! Take a look at Topper's page here.

Though this is far from the sparsest page on this site, it's definitely the one that least-thoroughly depicts its subset of ballooning. Homebuilding has always displayed a vastly greater variety of ideas and approaches than are portrayed here. If you have photos, literature, information, etc. about homebuilts and start-ups from this period that you can either e-mail or snail-mail me (I'll return anything mailed, promptly after scanning, at my own expense), please drop me a line! It's my goal to continue expanding my knowledge (and yours) of this entertaining and important subset of ballooning.