Hot-Air Balloon Design
Archive film · Balloon Team & Helicopter Charter
Design at the scale of an aircraft.
Before MXN DESIGN, aviation was a large part of my working life. During the 1990s, I owned and operated a commercial balloon and helicopter company. I was a licensed balloon and helicopter pilot, combining flying with the day-to-day running of the business.
My balloon-envelope designs took colour, geometry and graphic identity to the scale of an aircraft. The original photographs preserve the character of that work, from a period when the design process began with hand-drawn charts.
← Back to the archive
Tabaluga und Lilli · 1994
In 1994, I took part in Peter Maffay’s first Tabaluga tour, Tabaluga und Lilli. The tour balloon brought the show’s characters and artwork into the sky, connecting my work in commercial ballooning with music, storytelling and design on an unusually large scale.
The Peter Maffay “Tabaluga und Lilli” balloon, from the first Tabaluga tour in 1994.
Ballooning in the 1990s. Max Stummer is on the right inside the basket, wearing the hat, with the burner alight.
Original hand-drawn balloon-envelope design chart, showing the panel layout and colour scheme.
A view from below the basket, with the Balloon Team & Helicopter Charter Maximilian Stummer name on the envelope.
Cameron Balloons Z-type design sheet: the red “Maxx” design with a black-and-white chequered stripe.
Helicopter flying — Max Stummer in a Robinson R22. Digitally edited archive photograph.