P3D Re: Balloons - Flying Cameras

[john bercovitz <bercov@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Caution, evangelical mode on:

> For years I have flown hot air balloons from Edmund Scientific.
...
> the advantage over helium is that it goes up for a minute or two 
> and comes back down on its own.

There is another advantage and that is that you don't want to waste 
helium which is, believe it or not, a precious resource.  Helium 
pricing is currently set mainly by market forces and is unreasonably 
low considering that there is a small, finite, amount of it.  Released 
helium goes into space so it's really lost.  Helium is valuable for 
all sorts of cryogenic uses and getting more valuable all the time, 
but the demand hasn't been high enough to have an effect on the price.

We return you now to your regularly-scheduled program.

John (cryo engineer in one of many former lives) B


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