The Ballon Generali is a

tethered helium balloon A tethered, moored or captive balloon is a balloon that is restrained by one or more tethers attached to the ground and so it cannot float freely. The base of the tether is wound around the drum of a winch, which may be fixed or mounted on a vehic ...

, used as tourist attraction and as an air quality awareness tool. Installed in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

since 1999 in the Parc André-Citroën, it was created and developed by the French company Aerophile SAS for the celebration of the year 2000. The balloon has lofted more than 500,000 passengers into the sky since its opening.

Operation

The balloon, filled with of

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

, is attached to the ground with a cable, controlled by an hydroelectric

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

. This tourist attraction can board up to 30 passengers (this amounts to around ) at above Paris. It is high, and has a diameter of . It has been used as advertising billboard for Fortis, then from 2002 for Eutelsat. In 2008, a partnership has been signed with

Banque populaire Groupe Banque Populaire ("People's Bank") was a French group of Cooperative banking, cooperative banks. The central entity was controlled by 15 independent regional banks and also operated under the CASDEN and the Crédit Coopératif subsidiaries. ...

and Airparif : renamed "ballon Air de Paris", its internal illumination system changes the outer colour in real-time, according to the ambient

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...

, measured by Airparif : from

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

(good) to

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

(bad) through

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

(poor). This system was completed by an independent lighting (panels

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (co ...

, visible especially at night on the lower part of the shell) stating the air quality near traffic with the same colour code. On April 18, 2013, a brand new

was introduced, renamed the "Ballon Generali" (the Italian insurance company Generali has entered partnership agreements to more than 14 years with the

Mairie de Paris In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

). Since that day, every year it lifts around visitors. The spectacle lasts around 10 minutes. In the morning, with optimal weather conditions, the Ballon Generali can reach the altitude of , making it the second highest point after the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

References

External links

web site
*{{in lang, fr}
aerophile SA web site
Tourism in France Balloons (aeronautics) Buildings and structures in the 15th arrondissement of Paris Tourist attractions in Paris Tourism in Paris

Operation

See also

References

External links