This site is dedicated to
the concept and practice of the
Flying Kettle
in other words, to the promotion of
Steam Balloons and Steam Airships
Sorry - we're short on fancy graphics and other frills - this site is for information rather than entertainment... although I hope that you may find parts of it entertaining....
A word of apology to our American friends: this bit of cyberspace is not ashamed of using the metric system. I'm an old-timer, so like you I still have a sentimental hankering for the good old Imperial ways; but, believe me, once one can overcome one's natural distaste for the number 10, one finds that it does beckon one on to the future....
Great news - the first ever filling of a steam balloon!
General discussion of the next stages....
What we need to make to do it....
Building the ground burner/boiler unit "Philip Hopes"
Firing it up on gasoil for the first time...
Making the envelope .....
Making miscellaneous equipment
You can download a paper I recently presented at the 4th. International Airship Convention and Exhibition in Cambridge, England in July 2002, by clicking on the following link. It summarizes the main points of this Project in a simple and accessible form in one connected document.
This is an HTML version (in English) of an article on "Steam Balloons and Steam Airships" which I wrote some time ago for the magazine of the JBFA (Japanese Buoyant Flight Association).
An outline of what is proposed (split across a number of linked webpages).
The basic idea of steam LTA flight - using steam as lift gas - was thought of long ago. Here you can read up (in great detail) what I have been able to find about the prior history of the concept.
This is an HTML version of a similar (but earlier) paper which I was privileged to deliver to the assembled brains of the world airship community in July 2000 at the 3rd. International Airship Convention and Exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The overall thrust of this paper is still valid, although many of its details have been superseded by subsequent developments. Its contents have now been rearranged and spread around various pages of this site, so it appears here only by way of completeness.
Accounts and photographs of our experimental program....
Steam Links, Airship Links, Balloon Links.....
A map of this site in case you get lost!
Send us email at:
flying at flyingkettle dot com
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