The photograph on the left shows an aluminium gondola, equipped with burners and four small propane gas cylinders, manufactured by Bernard Smatana of Aerial Images. Aerial photography equipment such as this can be purchased in ready-to-fly form but some balloon enthusiasts build their own balloons and basket/gondolas.

One of the fascinations of hot-air balloons is their fundamental simplicity, but of course building some of the necessary equipment requires knowledge and experience.

Where required, the gondola seen here might be enclosed in a whicker basket, but for aerial photography the open structure is ideal for attaching a remotely controlled camera.

Gondola photograph by kind permission of Bernard Smatana of Aerial Images.