If God had meant balloon baskets to have three corners he would have told Henry Ford to produce triangular cars. The connection may be slightly tenuous, but a first grade high school math student can explain that cars and trucks (when did you last see a triangular truck?) are rectangular because the shape has the ability to provide a superior ratio of usable space to weight. It certainly does when the formula is applied to balloon bakets.

Rectangular scores over triangular again when you consider the problem of carrying the basket in a van or trailer: the former is again much more space efficient than the latter (unless you carry two, in which case they make a nice rectangle).

And where do you logically put the fourth fuel tank? Or the fourth person? Does the latter have to stand in the middle and look over the shoulders of the more fortunate who have bagged a side, or do they just muscle-in? This question becomes more serious with larger baskets for passenger rides operations. In most European countries there are requirements that not more than a certain number of passengers can fall on their fellow passengers in the case of a hard landing. This has led to the production of T and double T partition baskets which have proved valuable aids to passive safety. How do you sensibly partition a triangle?

So far as vertical weave v horizontal is concerned, I can only comment in respect of fully woven baskets: ie those that have a woven floor as well as sides. There is no question that the integral strength of these baskets, where there is a continuity of weave around all corners, both vertical and horizontal, is greater than those that are constructed solely from vertically woven panels and separate floors that have to be connected together by some alternative mechanical means. Integrally woven baskets also tend to be lighter in weight.

It is also said that horizontally woven baskets produce more friction and so slide over the ground less easily when put down in a high wind, but modern fast deflation systems have tended to make this yesterday's problem.

Of course, at the end of the day personal choice isn't always dictated by logic. Triangular baskets may not have much to recommend them, but they do stand out from the crowd. Can't you just hear that little boy on the launch field at Albuquerque shouting: "Hey, mister; your basket's got a corner missing."

Giving the question my most profound consideration, I have to ask whether selling three corners for the price of four is some sort of Conn trick? (It's a joke, Sid).

Best regards: Alan Noble at Cameron Balloons, Bristol, UK.