Manufacturing Pedigree
Don Cameron was the leader of a small team that built the first modern hot-air balloon in Europe in 1966 some 183 years after the Montgolfier brothers gave man his first taste of controlled flight taking off from Paris in 1783. The Cameron balloon of 1966 was built of modern day synthetic materials and used a burner powered by bottled gas instead of the line-paper fabric and open brazier employed by the Montgolfier brothers. By 1971 the hobby had become a business and today Cameron Balloons is the world's largest manufacturer of hot-air balloons and airships.
Don was the first man to cross the Sahara and also Alps by balloon and in 1990 made the first balloon flight from the UK to the as it was then USSR. In 1992 he flew a balloon of his own design across the Atlantic from Bangor, Maine, USA to Portugal.
Most recently, Cameron successfully designed, built and guided the first ever balloon in history to fly around the world non-stop. The Brietling Orbiter 3, as the balloon was known, was a larger jet-stream capable version of the Roziere that Don had used to make his successful Atlantic Crossing in 1992. It is now displayed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, USA.
Another Cameron Roziere was later used by Steve Fossett to make the first succesful solo balloon flight around the world.
The Company now employs more than 70 full time staff and it is in this factory that the majority of our balloons are manufactured. Private guided tours of the factory are available when your new balloon is in build.
