One of the most important tasks that the helicopters undertake is fire fighting- not fire fighting in residential area, but in huge areas like in the case of forest fires and terrorist attacks. The destruction is on a large scale and efficient and quick management of crisis is required. A lot depends on the competency of the pilot as well, because gadgets are of no use in ignorant hands.

Techniques: One of the simplest and the most effective methods that the chopper uses is the water bucket. It is actually a portable bucket-like structure, hung externally below the helicopter using cargo hooks. The mechanism is not very complicated, and once emptied, it can be refilled very quickly from nearby lakes and ponds, making it very efficient and quick in times of crisis.

Another such tool is the Bambi Bucket, which is a slightly advanced version of the water bucket and can be carried in distant regions as well, making fire fighting possible even in those remote regions where there are hardly any facilities for such severe possibilities.

Fire Extinguishers: Apart from water, the helicopter also uses chemicals and water enhancers like foams, gels and specially formulated fire retardants. The helicopter is also used for Foam System Operations. The manufacturers produce foam of different chemical densities to suit the requirements of different aircraft.

The foam is added to the water buckets in concentration levels of 0.5% to 1.0%, though they may differ according to circumstances. Foam tanks are almost similar in use to water tanks but they require power pumps to operate.

Advantages: The helicopter is also an excellent way to survey the entire area and keep a contact with the ground personnel regarding the current situation. The standard method of controlling fire is to start at the “heel” or the starting point of the fire and to continue along the “flanks” or the side, towards the area where it is headed. This gives the added advantage of checking whether the fire has changed course and affected other area or not. Moreover, a fire spreads more rapidly if it is moving uphill, because of the wind and other driving factors, and such situations are most efficiently controlled from the air.

These techniques that can be performed with helicopters make them a boon during rescue operations.

The history of modern hot air ballooning began in France in 1783. Two brothers, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfiere, launched the first hot air balloon in September of 1783 with an odd trio of passengers – a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. The king and his court turned out to see the spectacle, and they were not disappointed. The balloon rose to more than 1000 feet and then floated down, safely returning its three passengers to the ground.

In 1782 they became interested in understanding why smoke rose and whether it could be used to lift man into the sky. They began experimenting, moving from smaller balloons to larger ones. By the time they lifted the barnyard animals into the sky, they had already successfully launched an unmanned full-size balloon.

After the barnyard trio’s successful flight, the brothers moved on to manned flight. In November 1783, they launched the first manned hot air balloon flight. Pilate de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes were the pilots of the silk-and-paper balloon, and the two stayed aloft for about 25 minutes, ascending approximately 500 feet and traveling about 5 1/2 miles from their origination point in a Paris park.

Legend says the pilots gave champagne after landing to the local farmers to alleviate their fears of the suspicious craft descending from the sky, but he National Balloon Museum in Iowa disputes this story, saying research shows the balloon actually landed in an empty vineyard with no witnesses.

The first manned flight in a hot air balloon was quickly followed by the first gas balloon ride. Just 10 days after the Montgolfier’s balloon carried its two human passengers into the sky, French physicist Jacques Alexander Charles launched the first manned gas balloon flight on December 1. It also started in Paris, but lasted much longer; the balloon stayed aloft 2 1/2 hours and traveled 25 miles.

Ballooning quickly took off from there. French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became the first people to cross the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon. The crossing took two and a half hours, and nearly ended in disaster – the pilots had to toss most of their ballast overboard after the balloon unexpectedly lost gas and almost fell into the channel. Months later, Pilate de Rozier, one of the two pilots in the first manned Montgolfiere, became the first person to die in a balloon accident as he attempted to cross the Channel.

Blanchard later flew the first hot air balloon in North America, in 1793. But it wasn’t until 1830 that Charles Ferson Durant became the first American to pilot a hot air balloon in North America. He lifted off from New York’s Castle Garden to drop leaflets that contained a poem he had written about the joys of flight.

The sport never really took off, however, until 1960, when advances in balloon technology led to a new interest in hot air ballooning. Paul Yost, who became known as the father of modern hot air ballooning, piloted the first flight of a balloon sporting a new envelope and new propane burner system he developed. Suddenly the sport took off. By 1963, sport ballooning had become popular enough that the first U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships were held in Michigan.