Word: balloonful
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...make large-sized "blowups" (TIME, March 25, 1974). Members of the International Explorers Society, a travel-oriented organization based in Coral Gables, Fla., have another explanation. They believe that the Nazcas laid out their remarkable figures while being guided by observers hovering above them in a hot-air balloon. In an attempt to prove their point, I.E.S. members last month flew a crude balloon over the figures...
...I.E.S. began to develop its theory when members who had flown over the giant figures became convinced that it was technically impossible for the Nazcas to create-or appreciate-them without a vantage point in the sky. Further research suggested that the vantage point could well have been a balloon. Textiles recovered from desert graves provided evidence that the Nazcas had the materials to make the balloon's envelope, and a picture on an ancient...
...researchers also found a significant clue in documents at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. These papers revealed that in 1709 a Brazilian-born Jesuit missionary named Bartholomeu de Gusmao went to Lisbon and demonstrated (74 years before France's Montgolfier brothers flew their balloon over Paris) a model of a balloon believed to have been used by the Indians. Filled with smoke and buoyed by hot air from glowing coals in a clay pot, the replica rose from Gusmao's hand and floated toward the palace ceiling...
Delayed Lift-Off. To support its theory, the I.E.S. decided to build and fly its own version of a Nazca balloon. The result was an odd contraption called Condor I, with an 88-ft.-high envelope made from fabric that closely resembles materials recovered from Nazca gravesites. The balloon's lines and fastenings were made from native fibers; the boat-shaped gondola was woven from totora reeds picked by Indians from Peru's 2.4-mile-high Lake Titicaca...
...answer that planetary puzzle, the Soviets last June launched two more unmanned spacecraft, Venera (Venus) 9 and 10. Last week, after arcing across 186 million miles of space, the first of the probes approached its target and released a small lander, emblazoned with hammer and sickle. After deploying a balloon-like French-designed parachute system, the vehicle descended slowly through the atmosphere and made a soft landing. Prechilled in the coldness of space, the probe's instruments survived 53 minutes on the torrid surface-three minutes longer than the last Russian lander. They radioed a flood of data, including...