Explanation
There are eight people working in the design department, and Don Cameron himself will often take an interest in much of the design work that goes on. Those eight people split into various specialist roles:
- 4 people work on canopy and envelope
design
- 2 people work on the design of the hardware like burners and rigging
- 1 person is a draughtsman for drawing detailed technical drawings and plans
- 1 person works exclusively on airworthiness certification
The two key types of balloons they design are the standard / conventional balloons and the special balloons. For more details on the product range you may want to go to the Cameron Balloons section. Clearly the amount of work required for each differs considerably:
| STANDARD ENVELOPES | SPECIAL SHAPES |
|---|
| Gradual development of existing designs to keep up with improvements in fabrics and equipment | Every individual balloon requires unique design. |
| Only the design needs airworthiness certification - not each balloon | Every individual balloon requires its own airworthiness certification |
| Occasional design of new envelopes | |
Much of the time of the design department is therefore spent on the special shape balloons. The process of designing these is as follows:
- Definition of the exact shape
- Sketches to show how the shape can be formed
- A model (depending on the complexity)
- 3D computer shaping
- Detailed design of panels.
The CAD (computer-aided design) package to help to do this was written in-house at Cameron Balloons - mostly by Don Cameron himself. Most of the design staff have an engineering or aeronautical engineering background, and all have to be fully conversant with using CAD packages. It will take a minimum of six months experience before a new member of staff will be able to work independently on any aspect of the design and several years before they would be able to take full responsibility for a whole design.
