Tear track
The tear strip is a safety device of the gas balloon . It is a web segment that is attached over a slot in the balloon envelope. The balloon operator can remove the tear strip by pulling on the rip cord , also known as the tear strap , in order to quickly release the gas from the balloon envelope. If necessary, the rip cord is pulled immediately before landing to prevent the balloon from re-ascending or a dangerous dragging run.
The reissue track was invented in 1844 by the American John Wise and, independently of him, again in 1855 by the French Eugène Godard , but it was not developed in its mature form until 1893 by Hans Groß . It soon replaced the emptying valve or the anchor (also used to prevent drifting), which was previously common in free balloon flights. The first balloon equipped by Groß with a tear track was the Phönix from 1893. After a first test of the tear track following a night landing on July 15, 1893, it proved itself for the first time in a storm landing near Berent on July 25 of the same year.
The tear path of the gas balloon is in the upper part of the balloon envelope, starting about half a meter from the valve and ending just above the equator. The cutout is closed from the inside by the tear panel tongue. It used to be glued to the balloon envelope. Today it is either tied with eyelets or fastened with Velcro and sealed gas-tight with an insulating tape. The red rip cord leads from a toggle at the upper end of the tongue through the inside of the balloon to the basket. It is secured to a washer near the valve. This safety device is released by pulling once, a second pull opens the tear strip.
literature
- J. Poeschel: The balloon ride . In: J. Poeschel (Ed.): Ins Reich der Lüfte , Voigtländer, Leipzig 1927, pp. 68–88.
Individual evidence
- ^ Otto Lueger : Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences . 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart and Leipzig 1920 ( zeno.org [accessed on December 4, 2019] Lexicon entry “Maneuvering valve”).