We mentioned earlier that the cubic capacity of an envelope dictates how many people can be carried aloft safely in a balloon. However, this capacity may be adjusted upward or downward depending on other factors, principally air temperature, altitude and what might be bluntly described as the Fatso Factor. The key is to determine the maximum safe gross weight that can be carried by the balloon on a given day. The Basket Currently, open-air passenger vessels for balloons are made either of wicker or aluminum and fiberglass. A rigid tubular framework extends from the basket upward where it attaches to the 24 stainless steel cables suspended from the envelope.
Baskets normally come in square or rectangular shapes.
Triangular shapes also are available, and on special order one can obtain completely enclosed gondolas, or deluxe baskets with built-in banquette seats and insulated champagne holders. As a minimum, there must, of course, be room on board for securing the necessary fuel tanks and flight instruments. Wicker is the classic or traditional look in a basket, but it is actually not just nostalgia that makes it a popular material, even though it costs more than aluminum-fiberglass varieties. Normally the burner or burners point directly into the center of the balloon envelope. There is a pilot light very much like the kind found on ordinary gas stoves, and this assures rapid access to heat whenever necessary.