Civil War Balloon Inflation

This video was filmed during the National Air and Space Museum's "Mr. Lincoln's Air Force" Family Day on Saturday, June 11, 2011. The event commemorated the 150th anniversary of Thaddeus Lowe's tethered ascent in a gas balloon, which attracted the support of President Lincoln and led to the creation of a balloon corps for the Union Army under Lowe's leadership. This clip shows the process used to inflate the balloon on the Mall, sped up 25 times.