Aerophile

Last updated
Aerophile SAS
Company type Public limited company
IndustryDevelopment and operation of tethered helium balloons
Founded1993
FoundersJérôme Giacomoni Matthieu Gobbi
Headquarters,
France
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jérôme Giacomoni, Matthieu Gobbi
Products Tethered helium balloons
Website http://www.aerophile.com/
Ballon Generali taking off Ballon Generali taking off.jpg
Ballon Generali taking off

Aerophile SAS is a French company specialized in building and operating tethered helium balloons. [1] Formed in 1993 the tethered gas balloons operate as tourist attractions around the world. The company has sold more than 60 balloons in 30 countries.

Contents

History

Aerophile was founded in 1993 by two 25-year-old French engineers from the École Polytechnique, Mathieu Gobbi and Jerome Giacomoni. In 1994, they installed their first large tethered balloon in Chantilly, France) and in 1998, Aerophile celebrated its first flight to an altitude of 300 metres (980 ft). In 1999, the company launched the large Paris Balloon and improved it in 2008 by adding a lighting system.

In 2000, the company created a mobile tethered balloon approved to carry two people to a height of 90 metres (300 ft): the Aero2.

In 2002 they operated the first modern tethered gas ballon on a water-based platform at Neuchâtel.

In 2005 the company installed a large PanoraMagique balloon, operated by a subsidiary Aerotourism, at Disneyland Paris, it was the first 8-point Aero30NG balloon.

In 2007, they set up and opened the first Aerophare in Evry 2 (France), an attraction with an air-filled captive balloon within a 54 metres (177 ft) tower. Aerophare is a novel adaptation of a tethered balloon operating in an enclosed tower.

An Aerophile ballon holds the record for carrying 30 passengers in a gas balloon.[ citation needed ]

The company currently runs six Aero30NG : Paris Balloon, one at Disneyland Paris, one in Walt Disney World Resort, one in the Orange County Great Park, one in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and one Aerobar, the latest creation, at Futuroscope.

Subsidiaries

The Aerogroupe company has several subsidiaries :

Balloons

The Aerophare, Evry2, France Aerophare (7).jpg
The Aerophare, Evry2, France

The Aero30NG is a tethered balloon 22,5 meters in diameter can receive up to 30 people at a time in its nacelle and can rise up to 300 metres (980 ft). Its winch system ensures a climb speed of 0.8 m / s and its patented platform optimizes landings. This balloon has been installed over the 5 continents : France :Château de Cheverny, Château de Chantilly, Bordeaux, Beaune, Parc de Samara, Paris Balloon and Disneyland Paris, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Tunisia, Turkey, Irak, Lebanon, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia (Angkor Wat), Thailand, Singapore and Australia. Ocean Park Hong Kong, Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, . This model has also been adapted to allow parachute jumps as part of military training in Yemen.

The Aero2 is a charged helium balloon of 9 meters in diameter which offers a view to two passengers to around 90m above ground. The moored balloon can be seen at 10 kilomètres around. This balloon has been used as a marketing tool for Danao Tour in 2002 but also by Fortis and throughout France.

The Aerophare is a balloon operating within a 54 metres (177 ft) tower structure. The structure allows it to operate worse weather than a conventional tethered balloon.

The Aerobar is an aerial bar. This new concept allows 15 persons to rise up to 120 feet in the sky while enjoying their favorite drink. Visitors are experiencing a triple emotion: the chills of seeing the ground away from their feet, great view while discovering the scenery and the canopy of heaven meeting the earth on 360° and the conviviality with the other passengers that share a drink aboard this aerial bar. The first Aerobar is installed in Futuroscope, second largest theme park in France.

The Little Prince Park is located in Ungersheim in the Alsace region. The park gets its name from the French novel The Little Prince . There are 31 attractions based loosely on the theme of flight. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disneyland Paris</span> Theme park in France owned by The Walt Disney Company

Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, 32 kilometres east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the original theme park of the complex, opening in 1992. A second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park, opened in 2002. Disneyland Paris celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022; by then 375 million people had visited, making it the most visited theme park in Europe. It is the second Disney park outside the United States, following the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort in 1983, and the largest. Disneyland Paris is also the only Disney resort outside of the United States to be completely owned by The Walt Disney Company. It includes seven hotels: Disney Hotel Santa Fe, Disney Hotel Cheyenne, Sequoia Lodge, Newport Bay Club, Hotel New York – the Art of Marvel, The Disneyland Hotel, and Davy Crockett Ranch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokyo Disney Resort</span> Theme park and vacation resort in Chiba, Japan

The Tokyo Disney Resort is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, which constructed and designed the resort and its various attractions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amusement park</span> Park with rides and attractions

An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.

<i>The Twilight Zone</i> Tower of Terror Drop tower dark ride at Disney parks

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or simply Tower of Terror, is a series of similar accelerated drop tower dark rides located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, Walt Disney Studios Park, and formerly located at Disney California Adventure. The attraction is inspired by Rod Serling's anthology television series, The Twilight Zone, and takes place in the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel in Hollywood, California. The Tokyo version features an original storyline not related to The Twilight Zone and takes place in the fictional Hotel Hightower. All versions of the attraction place riders in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator, and present a fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously disappeared from the elevator under the influence of a supernatural element many years previously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balloon (aeronautics)</span> Type of aerostat that remains aloft due to its buoyancy

In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disneyland Park (Paris)</span> Theme park within Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France

Disneyland Park, originally Euro Disneyland Park, is a theme park found at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. The park opened on 12 April 1992 as the first of the two parks built at the resort. Designed and built by Walt Disney Imagineering, its layout is similar to Disneyland Park in California and Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Florida. Spanning 56.656 ha —the second largest Disney park based on the original, after Shanghai Disneyland Park—it is dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinderella Castle</span> Fairy tale castle at two Disney parks

Cinderella Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of two Disney theme parks: the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Based on Cinderella's fairy tale castle from Disney's 1950 animated feature film, both serve as the symbol and flagship attraction for their respective theme parks. Along with Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Castle is a main symbol of The Walt Disney Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Disney Studios Park</span> Theme park at Disneyland Paris

Walt Disney Studios Park is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Upon opening, it was dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes, but in the 2010s, in a similar manner to its sister park, Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, it began to distance itself from the original studio backlot theming and entered a new direction of attraction development inspired by iconic Disney stories. In 2019, the park hosted approximately 5.2 million guests. The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower with Mickey Mouse ears similar to the one formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which in turn was inspired by the water tower at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Village</span> Shopping, dining and entertainment complex in Disneyland Paris

Disney Village is a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex in Disneyland Paris, located in the town of Marne-la-Vallée, France. Originally named Festival Disney, it opened on April 12, 1992, covering an area of approximately 18,000 square metres (190,000 sq ft) inside what was then known as Euro Disney Resort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World of Disney</span> Retail stores operated by Disney

The World of Disney is the flagship chain of specialty retail stores owned and operated by the merchandise division of Disney Experiences, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Currently, there are four locations that sell Disney products.

<i>The Timekeeper</i> Former attraction at Disney parks

The Timekeeper was a 1992 Circle-Vision 360° film that was presented at three Disney parks around the world. It was the first Circle-Vision show that was arranged and filmed with an actual plot and not just visions of landscapes, and the first to utilize Audio-Animatronics. The film featured a cast of European film actors of France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, and England. The film was shown in highly stylized circular theaters, and featured historic and futuristic details both on the interior and exterior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gas balloon</span> Balloon containing gases which are lighter than air

A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air. When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent the escape of gas. A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small latex party balloons. For nearly 200 years, well into the 20th century, manned balloon flight utilized gas balloons before hot-air balloons became dominant. Without power, heat or fuel, untethered flights of gas balloons depended on the skill of the pilot. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can stay up for much longer than hot air balloons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Experiences</span> Theme park and travel division of The Walt Disney Company

Disney Experiences, colloquially known as Disney Parks, is one of the Walt Disney Company's three major business segments and a division of that company. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, just outside of Orlando.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickey's Toontown</span> Themed land at Disney parks

Mickey's Toontown is a themed land at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, two theme parks operated by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and The Oriental Land Company respectively. At Tokyo Disneyland, this land is named Toontown. A similar land existed at the Magic Kingdom until 2011 and was named Mickey's Toontown Fair. Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris has a related land called Toon Studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casey Jr. Circus Train</span> Attraction at two Disney Parks

The Casey Jr. Circus Train is the name of a ridable miniature railroad attraction found at Disneyland and a powered roller coaster attraction found at Disneyland Park (Paris).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DHL Balloon</span> Tethered helium balloon in Singapore in operation between 2006 and 2008

The DHL Balloon, in Singapore, was the world's second largest tethered helium balloon. It was inflated in 2006, and closed and dismantled in October 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disneyland</span> Amusement park in Anaheim, California

Disneyland is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, and opened on July 17, 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballon Generali</span> Type of aircraft

The Ballon Generali is a tethered helium balloon, used as tourist attraction and as an air quality awareness tool. Installed in Paris since 1999 in the Parc André-Citroën, it was created and developed by the French company Aerophile SAS for the celebration of the year 2000. The balloon has lofted more than 500,000 passengers into the sky since its opening.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokyo DisneySea</span> Theme park in Chiba, Japan

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual property from The Walt Disney Company. In 2022, Tokyo DisneySea hosted 10.1 million visitors, making it the eighth-most visited theme park in the world and the third-most visited in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remy's Ratatouille Adventure</span> 3D dark ride at Disney theme parks

Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, also known as Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, is a motion-based trackless 3D dark ride, based on the 2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille, located at Disneyland Paris's Walt Disney Studios Park in France and at Walt Disney World's France Pavilion at Epcot.

References

  1. Rivenburg, Roy; Barboza, Tony (July 13, 2007). "O.C.'s Great Park Prepares For Takeoff". Los Angeles Times . p. B6.
  2. "Little Prince Park, Like Book, Delights In Small". Rapid City Journal. Associated Press. July 20, 2014. p. C3.