The balloon pictured above is one of the most innovative of the early American homebuilts. When I found the patent held by its designer, I thought I'd found what amounted to the plans for this balloon. I hadn't. The patent documents describe a balloon called Charlie Brown, a one-place balloon with a dragster seat for the pilot. The balloon in the photos is Hail Atlantis, built in the late 1960s and entered in the 1973 and '74 Fiestas as a "Transcom-Commodore" (but registered as a homebuilt). She was the brainchild of Linden Harding, a talented automotive designer at General Motors' Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. One writer recalls that Harding penned the form of the original Trans-Am Firebird (including the bird design on the hood), as well as the long-nose Cadillac Eldorado and the distinctive split-window Buick Riviera. Harding was assisted in the design and construction of Hail Atlantis by a team of young graduates and engineering students from GMI (General Motors Institute, in Flint, Michigan), who aided in all phases of Hail Atlantis' creation, including the complex mathematical formulas determining the size and shape of each fabric panel.

Harding ordered the woven basket from Poland -- it was both spacious and, as proven in several hard landings, durable. Both Hail Atlantis and Charlie Brown were constructed from surplus Navy parachutes (Harding was a Navy reservist, hence Charlie Brown's orange-and-white color scheme). The parachutes were laboriously disassembled stitch-by-stitch, cut to shape, numbered, and coated with a costly clear, rubberized coating. The panels were then re-cut and assembled into the pattern of nested triangles depicted in the Charlie Brown patent documents. One visitor recalls that the burner unit consisted of three separate modules.

The envelope incorporated vertical metal cables for strength (and, one would assume, conductivity, although this was fortunately never tested). Harding flew with no instruments, although he did use handheld radios of spotty reliability. Occasionally, a local constabulary would go so far as to arrest Harding and his passengers when their appearance from above caused undue commotion among the gentry.

Harding formed the "Balloon Platoon of America," a successful balloon club whose fast growth paced the exploding popularity of ballooning in the early 1970s. Occasionally, Harding and Hail Atlantis would be retained for appearances at public events in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania (generally shopping-center promotions). For a time, Hail Atlantis was acknowledged to be the largest hot-air balloon in the world.

Interestingly, there's an entry in the 1974 Fiesta program for one Michael Kemeter of Dexter, Michigan, flying Echo, a Transcom AX-7. It's one of the few entries in that program without a photo of the balloon. Obviously, I know nothing whatsoever about Echo. Do you?

I hope to collect more images of Hail Atlantis (and, ideally, some of Echo and/or Charlie Brown), but at present, the photo above is the best shot I have of her basket and burner. I've always considered this the balloon I'm most eager to learn about - a highly unusual design about which mysteriously little is known. I'm grateful, then, to those who have written with information on Harding and his balloons. If you have information on either subject, and especially if you have photos of Hail Atlantis or (dare I ask) Charlie Brown, I'd really appreciate it if you'd drop me an e-mail.

For now, thanks to the U.S. Patent Office, I can present all you could ever want to know about the unique envelope design conceived for Charlie Brown and adapted for Hail Atlantis. Scroll down to view the Charlie Brown patent files and images of Hail Atlantis, and read more about Harding and his creations.