how do 4 forces of flight affect a hot air balloon?

Question

use thrust, weight, drag and lift

Answer 1

Hot Air Balloons aren't exactly designed with thrust and drag in mind.
Obviously, the weight of the balloon acts upon it like any other aircraft, attempting to pull its mass to the ground. Lift is produced by the difference in density inside and out of the balloon. The Hot air within is less dense than the cool air outside, so it will attempt to rise. The mass of hot air produces enough upward lift to counteract gravity, and it pulls the entire balloon and basket assembly upwards.
A conventional hot air balloon does not have any means of producing thrust. Any forward movement is actually produced by, well, drag. Air moving around the craft will create pockets of high and low pressure which will pull the balloon around it. How much this affects the craft is entirely dependent on the air currents that it is flying in. In designing a balloon, if one wants it to move more, they would actually design it to induce more drag in the air flowing around it.

Answer 2

Weight and lift go together on this question as do thrust and drag do to the fact we are talking about a hot air balloon.
First the weight and lift. Technically lift it produced by decreasing the weight of the gasses trapped within the ballon. Since the volume of the heated gasses within the ballon become lighter than the same or lower volume of gasses immediately surrounding the balloon, the total weight of the balloon (basket, rider and all) become lighter then the atmosphere they are within and float to the level of where the weight of the volume of gasses outside the balloon and within the ballon are of equal weight again.
As the balloon increase altitude into the atmoshpere it finds itself in wind currents (jet streams) that exist above the surface of the air, and now push the ballon, given the balloon its realitve thrust to say. Although there is realitive drag, givent the fact it is in a current of wind, it would be like a boat floating down river on the river's current.

Answer 3

Gravity is obvious.

Lift is created with the hot air pocket. Because the air takes up more space when heated, but doesn't weigh any more it wants to rise and lifts the balloon with it.

A balloon is unpowered, so has no thrust. If there were no wind a balloon would just go straight up, and straight back down. So in effect, drag is used as thrust. As the wind pushes, the balloon moves with it.

Answer 4

4 Forces Of Flight

Answer 5

You apply heat through propane burners to go up, carefully regulate lowering heat to come down, drift with the ambient air masses at different altitudes for direction. So you are concerned with mainly lift and weight or gravity. Brian Boland experiments with hot air blimps, though at his website www.brian bolland balloons.com

Answer 6

Hang Glider