More views from 2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Today we are looking at two images of a specific part of hot-air balloon anatomy: the burners. Burners are the devices that ignite and project the flammable fuel upwards into the envelope, to heat the air inside the hot-air balloon.

Note the glove-covered hand that is pulling the release on the propane, to ignite the flame?

These burners are like extraordinarly large bunsen burners; maybe 50 times bigger.

Before a hot-air balloon will launch, there are efforts to fill up the envelope, and then it takes time to heat that air.  On the ground, it’s exciting to be near a wicker basket attached to a balloon. The pilot ignites the flame on the burners and immediately you can feel the heat; hear the gush of the flame burning, and see the fire at fairly close range.

The gas flame appears blue closest to the burner because the complete combustion creates enough energy to excite and ionize the gas molecules in the flame. The pilots send up the flame to heat the air, and wave to the crowd all the while. With each burst of fire, the crowd goes wild.

The pilot sends the flames up, and the crowd cheers!