It is hard to make something, even out of coated super thin Ripstop nylon, the weight of the material, the stitching & seam seal are to heavy to float with Helium, I made a box shape a couple of years ago with the idea of having it float over Area 51, bounced at first and as the solar heat made it more boiant it only got to about 6 feet up. So I made Hydrogen and filled it with a reverse vacuum pump, a battery powered mattress inflator, (at home) it flew pretty good, but the issue came down to 1. Explosive, 2. How to make Hydeogen in the middle of the desert in sufficient quantity. And without blowing my self up.
it is the lightest element on the Periotic Chart. The Heleum you buy at Walmart for balloons is only around 80% so Mylar balloons don’t get sucked in to jet engines.
If you want either gases in there purist form be willing to shell out a few $$ for them at your local welding supply outfit.
so, to make a way to long story short, for my Snake Oil Show to get donations for the Museum, my alter identy, Professor Ersatz Faux got a fan from a wind dancer (like the guy who keeps flopping over on used car lots) and got some light weight Ripstop and seeed up a 8 ft high Snake,, rattled and all, I sold 15 bottles of Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment (honey) in about 90 min.
TMI-Thanks for letting me intertane you,
Rick