Balloon Nozzle Height Test

Balloon Nozzle Height Tests

Problem: The balloon nozzle is too high.

When a balloon fills in the launch bag the balloon nozzle ends up half way up the side of the balloon. For small balloon
this is just right. For a sixteen foot diameter balloon the nozzle is eight feet in the air. This makes is hard to work with.
Also the Tandem airship uses these big balloons and needs the nozzle much closer to the ground. After the fill starts
in the bag the balloon is very difficult to move.

Solution: The Origami balloon.

Our idea was to fold the balloon in a pattern that would leave the nozzle low after fill. To test the idea we took a small
balloon and launch bag and started experimenting. We saw pretty quick we were on to something. After the little
balloon we moved outside and tried what we learned with a medium sized balloon. It works! We conducted the experiments
with air instead of Helium. In a two weeks we are going to test again, but with a big balloon and helium.

See Nozzle Test 2

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