Helium balloons can be had from U.S. maker Albert Padelt, whose company, Best Aviation Services in Bally, Pa., has supplied many of the ones used in races, including the Gordon Bennett (the next one of which will be run Oct. 4, out of Albuquerque, N.M.). Cost: about $30,000.rnHydrogen balloons are common in Europe, where they have been flown safely for generations. Helium's high price promises to make them more common in the U.S.rnThe German company Ballonbau Worner has the manufacture of hydrogen balloons pretty much sewn up. Price: around $100,000. Complexity of manufacture has partly to do with the higher cost: Hydrogen balloons must be made fully conductive with a film of carbon to prevent the buildup of static charges that could ignite the combustible gas.
展开▼
