Modern Hot Air Ballooning

1960: The Rebirth of Balloon Flight

People became more interested in powered flight with the invention of the aeroplane in 1903, and ballooning became less popular and faded into the background.

The revival of the hot air balloon was pioneered by an American, Ed Yost. He was commissioned by the American Air Force to come up with a lighter than air lifting device for military application.  Yost had made tethered flights in 1955 using a balloon made from plastic film and burning kerosene. Ballooning became popular again after Yost made the first free flight of a modern hot air balloon in 1960, he developed the propane burner (resulting in a controllable and economical method of heating air inside the balloon), using light weight fabrics. This was the beginning of the modern hot air balloon which quickly emerged as a new and popular sport around the world.

1977 to present: Ballooning in Northam

Hot air ballooning came to Northam in April 1977 when members of the Hong Kong Balloon and Airship Club were looking for a location to set altitude, distance and duration records for hot air balloons. Northam was chosen as their preferred site to set these records because it was within close proximity to Perth, one of their regular flight destinations and offered a sheltered valley perfect for ballooning with open farmland being ideal for safe landings.

In August 1980 the Western Australian Balloon and Airship Club (WABAC) was created. WABAC along with the Northam Aero Club jointly organised to host two National Ballooning Championships at Northam in 1981 and 1984. The National Ballooning Championships were then hosted again in Northam in 2015 and 2017 & 2023.

In 2023 Northam hosted the 5th FAI Women's World Hot Air Ballooning Championship, the first time in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ballooning Records

Since 1977 there has been a number of significant hot air ballooning records which were achieved at or from Northam.

The Shire of Northam would like to acknowledge the achievement of the hot air ballooning pilots listed below:

Aug 1977	Geoff Green	World altitude AX-6	Charlie O-56
Oct 1978	Sabu Ichiyoshi	Japan altitude, distance	Cathay III O-84
Oct 1978	Ron Taaffe	Australian altitude	Shell O-56
Aug 1982	Ron Taaffe	World altitude, distance, duration	San Miguel airship D-38
Aug 1980	Paul Gianniotis	World distance AX-4	Sprite O-31
Aug 1980	Paul Gianniotis	Australian duration AX-4	Sprite O-31
Aug 1980	Gren Putland	Australian altitude AX-4	Sprite O-31
Sept 1980	Geoff Green	World distance	Sultan III A-140
	Adrian Clements
Aug 1980	Ron Taaffe	Australian distance	Charlie O-56
Sept 1982	Geoff Tetlow	Australian duration	San Miguel O-375
June 1994	Michio Kanda	World distance AX10-14	Mambo N-210 D/S
	Chikatsu Kakinuma
July 1995	Kei-ichi Kojima	World duration AX-5	N-42 D/S
Sept 1995	Maco Oiwa	World duration AX10-14	Mambo N-210 D/S
	Sabu Ichiyosh
Aug 1997	Toshiko Ichiyoshi	World distance, duration womens AX-6	Wombat N-56
Aug 1997	Maco Oiwa	World duration AX-6	Wombat N-56
2001	Steve Fossett	World duration	Solo Spirit R-550
June 2002	Steve Fossett	World distance, duration, RTW speed	Spirit of Freedom R-550
July 2016	Fedor Konyukhov	World distance, RTW speed	Morton R-550