MADE IN MONACO
© Monaco Ballooning Team
An ecologic balloon on the Prince ’ s Palace Square ready for kicking off ( April 2018 ).
HelloMonaco : Mr . Cruteanschii , can you tell us about the origins of the Club ?
Alain Cruteanschii : It all started when my wife and I moved to Monaco at the end of the 1990 ’ s . So , I asked myself what I could bring to the Principality . I am a skydiver and , speaking with some friends from the Monaco Parachute Team , I started conceiving the idea of a new sports club centred on hotair balloons . The Monaco Ballooning Team was then created in 2000 . From the very beginning , our mission was to make a dream come true : a red-and-white balloon to celebrate Monaco . Sometime after ( in 2008 ) the Société des Bains de Mer ( SBM ) trusted us and funded our first ride . That made us bring Monaco to the world . Therefore , we moved towards innovation thanks to Jeeper Champagne , putting into practice the new technology able to save between 50 % and 60 % of energy consumption , designed by Pierrick Duvoisin , talented engineer and hotair balloon pilot from Switzerland . Over time , H . S . H . Prince Albert II of Monaco has been interested in our project and other relevant partnerships came forward . And now we are preparing a new challenge that is going to create a sensation !
: What makes the ecologic ‘ montgolfière ’ unique ? balloon casing lets us improve the overall energy performance by generating an additional air chamber between the outer and the inner layer to reduce the heat loss . In other words , it follows the same principle as a double-glazed window . We then focused on the overall weight making all components lighter . Moreover , the burner is newly designed by Paolo Bonanno , experienced Italian engineer , and fuelled mainly by bio propane resulting from organic waste thanks to the support of SAM Romano-Energy , a leading Monegasque supplier . The device is capable to use every drop of fuel for maximum yield . Our partner Ford
Monaco provided us with an Explorer 4 × 4 hybrid vehicle which is very fuel efficient . We will also serve as a laboratory and use Ford vehicles powered by XTL diesel which reduces CO 2 emissions by 90 %. We must not forget , in fact , that the balloon always implies a dedicated means of transport for both the flight and ground crew , equipped with all the necessary material . We estimate that the total impact on the environment is reduced by 50 % – 70 % and we are looking forward to achieving 90 % in a few years . We are also planning to calculate our carbon footprint for the whole project in the near future .
AC : We are assembling and testing a newgeneration hot-air balloon which includes all technical improvements made over the last ten years . We will be launching it next summer ( between June and July ). The eco-tech allows us to reduce the fuel consumption due to several factors that act simultaneously . First of all , the double-layer
The production chain of the ecologic balloon at the Ultramagic balloon manufacturer in Igualada ( Barcelona , Catalonia , Spain ).
© Monaco Ballooning Team
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