Hot Air Balloon burners

I'm a french balloon pilot and I would like to find technical informations on balloon burners to build my own one.

See you soon

There was a description of someone who built his own burner mainly based on a Balloon Works T-3 burner in the issue 10 of the Balloon Builders' Journal (BBJ). For more information about getting it, send Bob Ledoux (email

balloon building and/or construction to get the complete set of BBJ. There are currently 28 issues that have been printed. You check out a full description of the BBJ at http://www.hotairship.com/reference/bbj.html

Good Luck!

Thomas Jones Battle Creek, Michigan

I've kept a log of my home-building experience for hot air balloons.

It is at http://www.cravenfamily.com/balloonconstru‰

BJP> I'm a french balloon pilot and I would like to find technical informations BJP> on balloon burners to build my own one.

Most balloon burners typically follow the 'blow torch' model, ie: a circular disc with holes in it to let the air stream in, with a center mounted jet. The easiest way to 'keep' them going would be to mount a spring-loaded lever valve, and connect a chain to it. Ensure that the lever valve is kept on slightly, as to keep a pilot light going. Then, when you pull the chain, you'll get a flame burst.

You can also connect a solenoid to the chain and have a small microcontroller time the intervals between bursts of air. I've seen this done, and it's very good. Steve Fossett used a solenoid for his ballooning attempt, if I remember correctly.

As for information, I suspect you can type in a search word into altavista or a similar engine and get pages of results.