Word: balloonful
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...name of Salomon August Andree. A 33-year mystery? was solved. They knew for certain now that the other two were the bodies of Knut Fraenkel and Nils Strindberg who, with Swedish Scientist Andrée, vanished in 1897 in an attempt to fly across the North Pole in a balloon...
Nearby were found three rifles, a harpoon, a boat, two sledges?all part of the emergency equipment of the balloon, of which there was no trace. The corpses' moccasins were severely worn, suggesting a long march over the floes from where the balloon came down. Most precious of all was Andree's diary. Its pages were so fragile that the finders feared to examine it. But one entry was visible? July 18, 1897, just one week after the fated takeoff...
...rubber ball in which they proposed to sail to Europe with no motive power or steering device other than the wind. They planned to take food and water for three months. They said they had been watching how Herzog's small daughter's toy balloon floated at the beach. Two concerns were interested...
...they have probed into the earth, with powerful telescopes into the skies. Of the sac of gases about the earth they have learned little. Reason: the density of the atmosphere decreases so rapidly that at eight miles it will barely support an airplane, at 23 miles a small free balloon has reached its roof...
Lighter-than-air craft have frequently been downed by lightning-memorably in the National Balloon Races of 1928 when three bags were fired by bolts. Dirigibles with metal framework are less subject to the hazard, although one Zeppelin was wrecked by lightning over the North Sea during...