Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of several small auxiliary gasbags placed inside a balloon or a nonrigid airship that can be inflated or deflated during flight to control and maintain shape and buoyancy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun one of several small balloons, inside a dirigible, that can be inflated or deflated to control buoyancy during flight

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French ballonnet, diminutive of ballon, balloon; see balloon.]

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Examples

  • The remote-controlled AirJelly is kept in the air by its helium-filled ballonet.

    neat model airship 2008

  • The remote-controlled AirJelly is kept in the air by its helium-filled ballonet.

    tingilinde: 2008

  • And the chamber inside the envelope that expands and contracts to compensate for changes in helium pressure is called a ballonet.

    USATODAY.com - Rare air above the Super Bowl 2003

  • The supply of air for filling these is taken from the propeller draught by a slanting aluminium tube to the underside of the envelope, where it meets a longitudinal fabric hose which connects the two ballonet air inlets.

    British Airships, Past, Present, and Future George Whale

  • The wind blowing against the opening, which faces it, charges the ballonet with air.

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

  • The gas-bag comprises a single chamber for the inflating agent, the distended shape of the envelope being sustained by means of an air-ballonet.

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

  • If it is desired to descend the gas is driven from the forward to the after end of the envelope, merely by inflating the bow ballonet with air by means of a pump placed in the car.

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

  • The envelope contained a single ballonet for regulating the pressure of the gas.

    British Airships, Past, Present, and Future George Whale

  • If ascent is required, the after-ballonet is inflated, thereby driving the gas to the forward end of the balloon, the buoyancy of which is thus increased.

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

  • It appears to be rearing up on end, as if the extremity saddled with the ballonet were weighted.

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

Comments

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  • A balloon-within-a-balloon that can be inflated or deflated to alter the buoyancy or lift of the enclosing balloon envelope.

    May 2, 2010

  • A vice president's duties are met

    By speeches that all will forget.

    He owns the hashtag

    #Auxiliary_gasbag

    His mail is addressed to "ballonet".

    February 12, 2015