Bard Balloons produces bespoke, custom-made, lightweight hot air balloons – created from scratch in Ottawa, Canada.
We have been building lightweight balloons for more than a decade.
All of our balloons are made with our specially-designed lightweight fabric. This fabric is custom-designed by us, and is custom-manufactured, dyed and coated to our specifications.
Making balloons with our lightweight fabric has several advantages. The first is easy handling by less ground crew. Secondly, the semi-transluscent properties of the fabric make the balloons light up at night during “night glows” – more so than with traditional balloon fabric. The main advantage is weigh savings – as they weigh a lot less than comparable special shapes made with regular balloon fabric (sometimes less than half as much weight). Lastly, most of our balloon systems (basket, burner, fuel cylinders & balloon) each fit on one small shipping pallet for easy international transportation and travel to worldwide events. Shipping one of our balloons can cost less than 50% of a traditional special shape balloon made with traditional balloon fabric.
New Projects
We are constantly working on new projects and have built 6 of our own special shapes so far, and helped design and/or build a dozen more. We have another new balloon well into the build stage.
Stay tuned for more information!
We also have space and time available to design and/or build your custom project – so get in touch!
Completed Special Shapes
built in the Bard Balloons workshop
#MÉTÉO
MÉTÉO is our latest Special Shape Hot Air Balloon to come out of the Bard Balloons workshop and was conceived during the depths of the 2020 shutdown where we had lots of time to design the perfect version of this concept. While there have been other similar balloons in the past, none have ever combined clouds
, sun
, rainbow
, and star
(there is even a hidden lightning bolt 
to discover). It took 5 full design iterations to get this one just right before we started building it – and it took a full year to cut and sew together, and another year of flight testing, for a total of almost 3 years from start to finish.
“Météo” is the French word for “weather”, the perfect name for this balloon.
While seemingly simple from the outside, this special shape balloon is quite complex, with internal structure walls, over 150 airflow holes and 16 appendages (including the largest appendages we have ever built – the 2 side bubbles of the cloud – each with a diameter of 9.5 m / 31 ft) – all this comes together to give this balloon a distinctive shape.
It is made with our very special, custom-designed lightweight fabric, as well as fluorescent yellow fabric for the sun portion, and in a few colors of the rainbow.
The base sphere has an internal volume of 2,260 m3 / 80,000 cubic feet and it has a total volume of 2,660 m3 / 94,000 ft3. It is almost as wide (21m / 69 ft) as it is tall (22m / 71 ft), and because it uses lightweight fabric, the balloon envelope only weighs 100 kg! (220 lbs).
It only requires a team of 5 crew and can take two (2) VIPs on each flight.
#BB BOT
BB BOT is the latest creation to come out of the Bard Balloons workshop in 2022.
It is by far our most complex Special Shape.
After 2 years and 6 full design iterations, we started building – and it took another 2 years to sew together, and after that, another year of flight testing, for a total of almost 5 years. It is now finally ready to be released to the world.
Featuring our very special custom-designed silver reflective lightweight fabric, this balloon is white on the inside with a silver-reflective coating on the inside. It is bright in the daytime reflecting the light of the sun, as well as bright during night glows.
This balloon has an internal volume of 80,000 cubic feet. Because of the lightweight fabric, the balloon envelope only weighs 100 kg! (220 lbs).
The balloon stands 100 feet tall. It only requires a team of 5 crew and can take two (2) VIPs on each flight.
#BBTiger
BBTiger came out of the Bard Balloons workshop in 2021. It was designed and built during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic to pay homage to 2022, the Year of the Tiger. To complement other Bard Balloon Special Shapes, it is done in a “Hello Kitty” style.
Built over the summer and fall of 2020, BBTiger first flew just before the winter of 2021.
The best feature of this balloon has to be the color of the orange fabric: a day-glow fluorescent orange. It is possibly the brightest balloon we have ever seen in the sky, bar none!
As with all our Special Shape Hot Air Balloons, it is made of lightweight fabric. This balloon design features our specially-designed round top as well as an elongated profile, and super-smooth skin, with no obvious vertical lines. This balloon is a little smaller than our previous balloons with a volume of 68,000 cubic feet. Because of the lightweight fabric, the balloon envelope only weighs 57 kg! (125 lbs) and the entire system fits on one small skid for easy international transportation.
The balloon stands 71 feet tall. It only requires a small team of 3 crew, and can take one (1) large VIP on each flight.
#LoveBear
LoveBear represents a Canadian Polar Bear. To complement other Bard Balloon special shapes, it is done in a “Hello Kitty” style. Built over the summer of 2019, it first flew in the fall of 2019 and has attended one international festival in Qatar in 2021.
A special feature on this balloon is the large pink heart on the parachute as well as a second one on the back side of the balloon, hence it’s name.
This balloon design also features a round top, an elongated profile, and super-smooth skin.
Made with special lightweight fabric (the fabric being custom-designed and manufactured just for us), LoveBear contains 1,300 yards (1,500 m) of fabric, weighs only 160 lbs (73 kg) and it has a total volume of 80,000 cubic feet (2,265 cu m). The entire system fits on one small pallet for easy international transportation. It only requires a small team of 4 crew, and can take two (2) VIPs on each flight. As with all our Special Shapes, the lightweight fabric makes it glow well during “night glows”.
#MyDeerling
Built over the winter and spring of 2019, MyDeerling first flew in the summer of 2019 and attended festivals in Malaysia, Thailand and the USA even though its 2020 World tour got cut very short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our lightweight fabric used in this balloon makes it much lighter than a regular special shape (103 kg envelope) and the pastel colors were custom-dyed specifically for this project.
This balloon design also features a round top, an elongated profile, and super-smooth skin.
MyDeerling contains more than 1,600 yards (1,463 m) of fabric and has a Volume of 80,000 cubic feet (2,265 cu m) plus about 10,000 cu feet of appendages, which are much larger and longer in size than most certified balloons with add-on appendages. The balloon stands 100 feet (30 m) tall and is 90 ft (27 m) wide.
It only requires a small team of 5 crew, and can take two (2) VIPs on each flight.
#Alien Rocket
The Alien Rocket was the first special shape balloon out of our workshop and it first flew in 2016. This has been a very successful shape balloon, flying in over 7 countries to date. Kids and adults, boys and girls – everyone loves the Alien Rocket. It somehow ignites childhood dreams whenever and wherever it flies.
The envelope only weighs 95 kg. It requires a small team of 4 local crew, and can take one (1) VIP on each flight.
The volume, weight and size were all carefully calculated to makes it easy to handle, one that is almost guaranteed to come out of the bag, unlike some other shapes that are a little more involved.
It uses fluorescent lime green fabric, and the design features super-smooth outer skin.
The Alien Rocket contains 1,500 yards (1,380 m) of fabric, has a total Volume of 65,000 cubic feet and stands 93 feet (29 m) tall.
To follow its adventures worldwide, visit the Alien Rocket Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/alienrocket
#Lite-Bright
The first balloon ever built by Bard Balloons – in 2009 – was Lite-Bright.
It has it’s own dedicated webpage. It also has a custom designed glass-floor basket, and with a volume of only 42,000 cubic feet, the envelope only weighs 75lbs (34 kg).
This balloon system including its custom-made basket has been sold.
#Lite-Bright 2
In 2023, we completed Lite-Bright 2 – a new lightweight 56k sized balloon (55,600 ft3) using our BARD56M design.
The envelope weighs just 97 lbs!
This balloon will mostly be used for fun flying, but will also be used for flight training and is sized correctly for AX-06 record attempts.
Other Special Shape Balloons
(built in other workshops)
We operate the largest fleet of special shape hot air balloons in the world!
We have helped design and/or build many other special shape balloon projects over the years, some of these appear below. All of the balloons above and below are available for bookings worldwide, and together they make up the largest fleet of special shape hot air balloons in in the world, currently standing at 14 individual Special Shape Hot Air Balloons.
We also always have several new projects currently in development.
Get in touch if you want something custom-created for you!
