10 kilometers of sewing thread, 250 meters of rope, 1,000 square meters of fabric. The numbers alone for a balloon envelope are daunting. But it takes even more impressive craftsmanship to make a hot air balloon. The Schröder Fire Balloons company in Schweich, Rhineland-Palatinate, builds a complete balloon with envelope, basket and burner in three months. This craftsmanship shows how a balloon envelope is created from more than 400 individual fabric segments, how the individual parts of the 4,000-horsepower burner are manufactured, and what dexterity is needed to weave a rattan basket. Whether everything works as planned can only be seen on the airfield.