The Balloon Club of America is the oldest continuously operating aviation Club in the world. It was founded in 1952 by Tony Fairbanks, a member of the defunct Cleveland Balloon Club 1932-1939, and Don Piccard. It started in New Jersey and moved to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Early gas balloon members were Jerry Burns, Francis Shields, Pete Wood, Eleanor Vadala and Connie Wolf. The gas ballooning era of the Club ended in 1978.

The Evolution From Gas To Hot Air Balloons

As Hot Air Ballooning became more commonplace in the early 1970’s the Club began to change the type of aircraft used but not their love of Lighter Than Air flight. As the Club evolved most of the new pilots were only exposed to balloons made of nylon carrying aloft propane fired burners.

As many of the early members grew older and retired from active flying the new generation of hot air pilots slowly took over leadership of the Club for the purpose of promoting the sport and training new pilots and crews. The Club began to fly regularly at its base of operation around Scranton Pennsylvania in the early 1970s and continues that activity to the current time. Over fourty pilots were trained at the Scranton vicinity sites, most of whom still fly regularly and make up a large proportion of the LTA ballooning community in the northeastern United States.

In the late 1990’s the cost of entering any form of aviation but especially hot air ballooning skyrocketed. Fewer pilots were trained and as many older balloons were retired from service, few were replaced. The educational mission of the Balloon Club of America to promote the sport was in jeopardy.

THE NEW GENERATION EMERGES

In the fall of 2000, a group of Harvard University students began to get interested in the Sport. It was a great get-a-way from congested Cambridge, Massachusettes and gave them a new dimension to bring their youth, vitality and talents to explore. They petitioned the University to allow them to form the Harvard Ballooning Society and formal approval was granted in the Fall of 2003.

The Senior Pilots of the Balloon Club of America formed a group of LTA experts to give the most welcome generation of new pilots Flight Training. A new hot air balloon was purchased by the Balloon Club of America with the cooperation of Aerostar International to be used primarily for the Society. Currently the Society is 40 members deep and several of them are finishing up their Flight Training requirements.

Weekends centered around Flight Training for the Society have been held at Scranton, Pennsylvania; Hudson, New York; Stowe, Vermont; Letchworth State Park, New York and Glens Falls, New York.

Harvard Balloon Society Officers 2004
Mr. Joseph Scott ‘05 President
Ms. Ann Hague ‘ 05 Vice-President
Mr. Rich Powell ‘05 Command Pilot
Mr. Elliott Neal ‘05 Treasurer
Mr. Rob Kallin ‘05 Crew-chief

Balloon Club of America
Instructors, Coaching Staff and Advisors
Mr. Richard “Dick” Powell
Mr. Harry Collison
Mr. Robert Mueller
Mr. Keith Sproul
Mr. Louis Minello
Mr. Paul Stumpf
Mr. Russ Barber
Mrs. Ruth Ludwig Lind
Dr. Clayton Thomas
Mr. Barry Finch
Atty. Ann Lavelle-Powell