Albuquerque Balloon Museum

At part of the celebrations of the annual balloon festival in Albuquerque, there is a really good museum. It is filled with balloon equipment that span much of the history of their usage. Lots of displays on expeditions that I knew nothing about that included ballooning.

For some of the very old balloons there were models like this one from the 18th century.

There were photos of balloons and airships from earlier in the 20th century. This one is getting a little on-end from the winds.

From the outside, we can see that the building is shaped like a hot-air balloon on its side being inflated. In the larger section (that looks like the balloon from the outside), are displays of balloons that carried instruments and people to high altitude.

There are several of the units that are pressurized when taking people to high altitude.

There was also this crazy old man pretending he was on a balloon flying through the azure New Mexican sky.