1962      With Barbara Eden                                                              1961

I recently found an old copy of “Flight of the Lost Balloon” (1961), loosely based on Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon. In contrast, the Flight of the Lost Balloon (1961) version lacks the star power and quality of 1962’s movie Five Weeks in a Balloon.  “Flight of the Lost Balloon” does offer a closer technical design version of Verne’s balloon. The 1961 movie correctly uses a battery current to produce hydrogen from sulfuric acid. It uses indirect heating tubes to power lift and up and down control. Verne’s Hydrogen heating system would have been dangerous even with his enclosed piping and double skin design. The 1962 movie design uses basic hot air heating.