The Balloon
Utilising lighter-than-air technology, the performance of Aerocene Pacha has seen the Aerocene Community’s ground-breaking aerosolar balloon attune to the weather and atmospheric conditions, lifting a human into aerosolar movement, only with the power of the sun
Aerosolar denotes the capability to transform the elemental conditions generated by the sun, departing radically from the likes of extraction-dependent hot air or pressurised balloons: instead, ultraviolet rays of solar radiation are captured by the membrane and absorbed into the internal body of air, raising its temperature above that of the external, and thus generating lift into the atmosphere.
Officially certified and capable of lifting a net weight of more than 250 kg and up to two human passengers, the balloon is the result of extensive, collaborative research on lighter-than-air materials and design carried out by the Aerocene Foundation in collaboration with various experts. The payload capacity has no precedent in the history of manned, solar balloon flight.
The complexity of moving into the era of Aerocene is encapsulated in the launch of this first ever manned, fully-solar free flight. Representing Aerocene’s artistic intervention in the development of human airborne practices and the trajectory of future human mobility typologies, enfolded in the performative launch events is an explicit ethical commitment to all of planet Earth, untethering new imaginaries of planetary futures and re-learning how to fly with our feet on the ground.
The Fly with Aerocene Pacha balloon (the D-OAEC) has a Class A classification according to FAI Sporting Code Section One - Aerostats.
The balloon falls under “2.1.1.5 Sub-class AT: balloons not falling into subclasses AA, AX, AM or AS.”
Fly with Aerocene Pacha flight is the longest human fully-solar balloon flight ever registered. The history of ballooning has had several record attempts, but they have always had to use carbon fossil fuel derivatives.
In a world where the climate emergency is pressing and there are already economies of scale transitioning to carbon free alternatives, we believe our flight will motivate the human inhabitants of the planet Earth to inquire, re-think and re-imagine alternatives to fossil fueled mobility.
In the making of the record we filed also for Notable achievements.
The balloon is inflated with a pedal powered fan system.
An average-sized hot air balloon (2,200 m3) uses about 136 litres of liquid propane gas in a one hour flight. This is equivalent to 207 kgCO2e (at 1.522 kgCO2/l) or the equivalent carbon emissions of driving an average car 1,250 km.
