For more than 200 years the wicker basket has served ballooning well. In the earliest days these were sometimes nothing more than wicker clothes hampers pressed into duty beneath a balloon. Though the Montgolfiers were first with the hot air balloon, the lack of a convenient on board heat source allowed the gas balloon to gain prominence among the aeronauts of the day. Indeed the public’s fascination with gas balloons, launched merely days after the first hot air balloon, would last well into the 20th century while hot air ballooning all but faded away.
With the success of the gas balloon came the common usage of the rectangular wicker basket. Thus, upon the invention of modern hot air ballooning in the 1960’s, this design seemed to serve well enough and little thought was given to changing it. Except for one man, Tracy Barnes.
As a pioneering young aeronaut Barnes had experimented with a variety of baskets during his early flying career, most of which was dedicated to promotional flights for one client, purpose or another. He had tried the traditional gas balloon basket, built his own baskets of tubing and fabric (not unlike the Raven "bucket"), and still thought there had to be a better way.
"Whenever I set about to design something," says Barnes, "I like to move as far away as possible from the 'this is how it’s always been done before’ syndrome. In that way I can start with a clean sheet of paper."
When he decided to go into the production of hot air balloons as a manufacturer, Barnes set out to design a better basket. Recalling his more than 10 years of flying experience he realized that, on average, 30 gallons of fuel had always been an adequate amount. Since 10-gallon aluminum fuel tanks were standard in the early 1970’s, 30 gallons meant 3 tanks. Three tanks in turn meant three corners.
"It really was as simple as that," Barnes recently told Balloon Life. "One
of the things I didn’t like about early baskets was that the fuel tanks were cold and hard
and seemed to protrude into the basket, into the passenger’s safe space. I wanted to
design a basket that had a warm, fuzzy feeling of safety about it. With three corners
you could tuck the tanks away from the passenger space, bring the basket edges up
over the tanks to protect them.
"As a child, where do you run to when frightened? You grab for your mother’s arm or leg. There is nothing more comforting than the touch of another human being and everything about the early baskets felt cold, harsh to the touch. I wanted my basket to have a warm, comfortable feel. That’s why all the leather trim and rattan uprights. None of those materials feel cold to the touch, like the tubing used at that time by others."
A Barnes basket also introduced the distinctive vertical weave. Again, Barnes says this unique design feature resulted from his flying experience. "In my years of flying I had drug a balloon and basket across just about everything. Sure, it’s easy to weave a basket in the old fashioned horizontal manner-you start at the bottom and go round and round until you reach the top. But to me the vertical weave made more sense. With a vertical weave you have all of the wicker lined up and acting like little runners dragging with the movement of the basket, not against it.
"I also wanted my baskets to be perfectly smooth. I didn’t want any edge that could catch on something. I’ve had more than my share of encounters with powerlines. Once I even snagged the basket on powerlines and had to climb out onto the line to push it off. That’s why the floor of my baskets fit inside the basket walls with smooth leather to protect the edge. Many of the rectangular baskets were just a piece of plywood with holes drilled around the edge to start the wicker. When they were finished, you had this plywood lip sticking out. I didn’t want that. In fact, if you run your hand down one of my baskets from top to bottom, it’s perfectly smooth. That’s because I didn’t want any edges that could catch on a powerline or anything else."
Barnes eventually sold his manufacturing license and facility. Today the baskets sold by The Balloon Works still contain the many design features created by him. They are the only triangular baskets available in the world. As for Barnes, he now owns and operates The Blimp Works in Statesville, North Carolina building advertising blimps and inflatables.
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