Balloon museum
Museum celebrates history of ballooning, Albuquerque’s contributions
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has dubbed the city the “ballooning capital of the world” because of its long history of adventurers who venture forth in those colorful craft. Visitors to Albuquerque can explore that history as well as other feats of aeronautical derring-do at the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum near the Balloon Fiesta Park.
The 60,000-square-foot domed museum building also has several spaces that can be rented for weddings, receptions, meetings or other special events.
Opened in October 2005, it is named after Albuquerque balloonists Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo, who, along with Larry Newman, made the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight in 1978 in the Double Eagle II.
Since its 2005 opening more than a million visitors have wandered through its airy rooms. The main exhibition area traces the history of ballooning from the earliest days in 18th-century France, through the 19th century when balloons were a highlight of country fairs, to the early 20th century when massive gasfilled dirigibles, or airships, functioned as luxury cruise liners.
Exhibits show the scientific and military uses of balloons. There are artifacts from a Fugo balloon used by the Japanese to carry incendiary bombs to North America during World War II. Visitors can see an original Stratolab from the 1950s when the Office of Naval Research used balloons to carry the two-man capsules to prepare humans for space travel.
Albuquerque’s own contribution to ballooning history has pride of place. There is a replica of the Double Eagle II — the original is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — and the original gondola of the Double Eagle V, which crossed the Pacific Ocean in 1981.
A more recent addition is the gondola of the Two Eagles gas balloon in which pilots Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Moscow in 2015 set a distance record of 6,646 statute miles flown, and a duration record of 160 hours, 34 minutes.
There are also plenty of tributes to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which began in 1972 and has become the largest event of its kind in the world.
4-D experience
The latest attractions the museum has added are the Tim Anderson 4-D Theater and “Arctic Air: The Bold Flight of S.A. Andrée” exhibition, which both opened in the last few months of 2016.
The 40-seat theater runs short movies every 30 minutes, including a 4-D animated flight experience, the fourth dimension being the physical effects like vibrating seats that viewers experience.
“Arctic Air” chronicles the 1897 attempt by three Swedish explorers to reach the North Pole by balloon in the Örnen
(Eagle) balloon. Expedition leader S.A. Andrée and crew members Knut Fraenkel and Nils Strindberg perished in the attempt. Their bodies were discovered 33 years later and returned to Sweden with great fanfare. The exhibit recounts the tale using an array of interactive technology, period artifacts, personal journals and photos recovered from a camera found with their remains.
“We tried to delve into the people and relate to their lives. Who were they, and why did they have the courage to do this in a balloon? What does it take to be an explorer?” says Museum Manager Paul Garver.
He expects the exhibition to remain at the Balloon Museum for two years and then move to other venues.
“Many people around the world are interested in this. It’s a story full of myths and legends,” Garver says.
Weather report
Construction that began in March will create another new visitor experience that
will be open by late summer. The Weather Lab will be an “immersive interactive” exhibition about weather and meteorology, Garver says.
The University of New Mexico School of Architecture is designing structures with themes like sun, wind, clouds and precipitation that visitors will be able to enter.
“We want people to understand how weather operates and how it affects daily life, things like transportation, agriculture, energy and other industries,” Garver says.