Inflatable
A balloon is an inflatable flexible filled with air and also gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide or oxygen.
Latex rubber balloons may be used as inexpensive children's toys or decorations, while others are used for practical purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation.
Some inflatable boats have been designed to be disassembled and packed into a small volume, so they can easily be stored and transported to water when needed.
Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fitted around wooden wheels in order to prevent wear and tear.
Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft.
However, rectangular inflatables are also possible, such as the Airtecture Exhibition Hall constructed by Festo AG & Co.[3] The concept was popularized on a large scale by David H. Geiger with the United States pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan in 1970.
They are internally lit by small C7 incandescent light bulbs (also used in nightlights), which are covered by translucent plastic snap-on globes that protect the fabric from the heat if they should rest against it.
Like inflatable rides, outdoor types are staked to the ground with guy wires (usually synthetic rope or flat straps) to keep them upright in the wind, though being rather flimsy this does not always work.
While these store compactly, there are disadvantages, including the large amount of electricity needed to constantly keep them inflated.
Decorative inflatables are made in many popular characters, including Santa Claus and snowmen for Christmas, and ghosts and jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.
Several trademarked characters are also produced, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Winnie the Pooh, and Snoopy and Woodstock from Peanuts.
There are also walk-through arches and "haunted houses" for children, and items for other holidays like Uncle Sam for Independence Day, and palm trees for backyard summer cookouts.
On others, mainly for Halloween, lightweight foam bats or ghosts spin around like confetti in what is called a "tornado globe".
Inflatables have been made by visual artists and displayed in prominent places in Australia, including on the water in Sydney Harbor and in the sky over the city of Canberra.
[7] Inflatable ballute structures have been proposed for use during aerocapture, aerobraking and atmospheric entry of cubesat[8] and nanosat[9] satellites.
The inflatable structures for these applications may take a variety of engineered shapes including stacked toroidal, tension cone and isotensoid ballute form factors.
Smaller-scale inflatables (such as pool toys) generally consist of one or more "air chambers", which are hollow enclosures bound by a soft and flexible airtight material (such as vinyl), which a gas can enter into or leave from through valves (usually one on each air chamber).
[12] Iconic structures like the US Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka Expo by Davis and Brody[13] and Victor Lundy's travelling pavilion for the Atomic Energy Commission popularized the idea that inflatables can be a way to build large structures with very extended interior spans without pillars.
The low technological barrier to building inflatables is further lowered by DIY instruction sets like the Inflatocookbook.
These are made out of rip stop nylon and have a constant flow of air from a blower inflating them.
In some cases, an inflatable roof is added to an otherwise traditional structure: the biggest example in the world was the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia.
