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Dyson fan heater and the hot air balloon

By 10/02/2012One Comment

There is, deep in me, a small McGuyver. I love non conventional solutions. I love forget-about-the-box-thinking. I love Dyson engineering, a lot. My Dyson vacuum cleaner totally rocks. And it is high tech from space 😉

I was amused to see how Dyson reinvented the fan, by taking the blades away. Now, they use it to fly hot air balloons. Me like 😉 (just do not try this at home, really!).

Bristol’s Cameron Balloons advised on and supplied the ultra light weight balloon material, but honestly, they were just interested to see if Dyson’s engineers could make it work. It took several prototypes to find the final scale required. And it involved some physics; Dyson engineers needed to overcome the machine’s thermostat control to ensure a continual heated output, whilst working in a chilly and cold space to get the required lift.  Heck, science asks for sacrifices! 😉

It took some time to fill the balloon with the large volume of air required, whilst combating heat loss from the balloon’s large surface area. They used a second Dyson Hot™ fan heater to help overcome heat loss until the balloon took off. All in all it was quite fun. *sigh*. I guess I’m just a boy 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ads6z8sfRKM

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