The 9997th Way Not to Make a Hot Air Balloon

After our first balloon went up in flames we decided we needed to change a few things.  Obviously.
We didn't mess too much with the balloon itself, most of our modifications have been on the engine.  For our second balloon, we punctured the engine a little higher from the bottom to allow for more fuel and glued the cans together at the seams with rubber cement to try to keep them from slipping apart.  The glue had all weekend to dry and it was still REALLY STICKY!!!!!  When we tried to launch the second balloon both Nikki and Katie held the balloon up while I played with fire in the engine.  The balloon didn't rise and only got hot.  Then the glue melted from the can and fell apart.

After the engine fell off I kicked the can over.

So we went back in and took out the middle can, then secured the cans with brads (from here on referred to as Bradleys).  It didn't take much longer than five minutes, but in La Junta, weather changes from blizzard to Sahara in less time than that.
When we went back out to launch the third time, a horrible gale had begun.  We decided to try anyway.  We aren't sure if our new engine design was working because the wind kept pushing the balloon into itself and the tissue inevitably caught fire.  We watched in silent honor and slight disappointment as the tissue paper burned away in the wind.

We still like our engine design.  The Bradleys kept the cans together more efficiently than the rubber cement.  We've modified our fourth balloon a bit more.  We decided that since we had so much trouble with even the slightest breeze working to collapse our balloon we needed an inner frame.  We lined three of the inner seams of the balloon with a lightweight wire.  The engine is now made of one long Arizona tea can that brave Steven Sandoval donated to our cause.  I am still fond of my idea to brace the wires connecting the engine to the balloon and with Mr. Ludwig's help found a thicker wire, about the same thickness as a strand of barbed wire.  This is the wire that secures the engine to the balloon now and it works wonderfully.  As soon as we have a clear day we will launch our remodified balloon and pray it flies.  Once we get it in the air we can figure out how to make it explode over a certain trebuchet.