No trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, is complete without a visit to the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum.
History of Ballooning
The first exhibit tells about the history of ballooning from 1783 to the current day. I am always amazed by the hot air balloon gondolas on display, seeing how small they are while reading about the long journeys taken inside those gondolas.
Did you know that the first balloon flight took place at Versailles? The test passengers were sheep and birds. They survived the flight so humans were next!
Science of Ballooning
On our most recent visit, the kids spent more time actually reading the various displays of information. But when they were younger, they really enjoyed the hands-on displays demonstrating the physics of hot air balloons.
Special Exhibitions
In addition to the history and other permanent exhibitions, there are several special exhibitions that change from time to time.
On our most recent visit, there was a display about the failed attempt to reach the North Pole via hot air balloon. I was fascinated!!
Epic Hot Air Balloon Adventures
There are so many amazing balloon adventure stories at the balloon museum and I left with a list of stories that I want to research further.
North Pole Balloon Expedition of 1897
In July 1897, Swedish explorer, Salomon Andre, tried to reach the North Pole in a hot air balloon. The attempt was a failure, and all members of the party died. Several books and movies have been made about this event. I bought a copy of The Expedition by Bea Usmaa at the museum gift shop and hope to write more about this at a later time.
Carlotta, Queen of the Skies
Carlotta is the stage name of Mary (Breed Hawley) Myers. Mary was the first American woman to fly a passenger balloon solo and she set several records during her lifetime.
Mary’s interest in flying balloons started when she saw her husband, Carl, flying successfully. They owned a business that manufactured balloons and even owned several patents on improved balloon technology.
Mary’s first solo flight was in 1880 and she retired in 1891. Mary and Carl sold their balloon farm business in 1910 and moved from upstate New York to Georgia.
Double Eagle Flights
Double Eagle II was the first balloon to complete a trans-Atlantic flight. There are stories about all of the various Double Eagle flights through the years and they all sound like very stressful flights to me!
Night Crossing
In 1979, two families crossed the border between East and West Germany under cover of darkness in a homemade hot air balloon. The picture book, Flight for Freedom, by Kristen Fulton is a well-illustrated telling of the story and includes a map of the journey and an informative author’s note.
And of course there’s a Disney movie about this story. Here’s a trailer for the Disney movie.
Night Crossing Trailer
Aeronauts
And speaking of movies, The Aeronauts movie is an amalgamation of several different early balloon events which were written about in Falling Upwards by Richard Holmes. Here’s a trailer-
Balloons to the Stratosphere
Did you know hot air balloons can go almost all the way to space? They have been used for surveillance, launching satellites, and weather tracking. The first human to reach 100,000 feet was Joseph Kittinger in 1960.
According to an article on space.com, World View will be selling balloon flights to the stratosphere beginning in 2024. Start saving your pennies because a ticket will cost $50,000!
Podcast
It’s not a blog post if I don’t add a podcast, right? Here are Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know to tell us all about how hot air balloons work–
Did you notice the podcast description? Balloons have a long history of killing their occupants! See what I mean about epic adventure in the sky?!
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More road trip adventures…
Our visit to the Balloon Museum was part of Big Trip 14. Want to know where else we stopped?
And just who were those little people who were enjoying the museum? They might enjoy going again as adults. Cool adventure.