Sport Baskets

These are the special ultralight baskets for competitive flying. Baskets K13S and K10S (Sport) have aluminium frames and a composite floor. 

The Sport baskets K13S and K10S were designed to extend the supreme series of eXtreme Racer balloons. The main idea was to reduce the weight of the baskets to a minimum while keeping all the advantages of rattan and a floor area that is perfect for competitive flying. The total weight of the basket K13S without equipment is less than 52 kg. Fully equipped it is around 62 kg instead of 85 kg for a similar regular basket. The total weight of K10S without equipment is less than 47 kg and fully equipped is approximately 57 kg.

The basket K13S is built for a pilot and his co-pilot/observer + 4 fuel cylinders (pilot + 2 passengers and 3 cylinders is an option). To save weight the basket has an inner height of 1.04 m and the burner height is lowered from 1.86 m to 1.76 m. We suggest that you consider one of the three options to raise the height of the burner:

• Specify longer poles
• Use a variable height burner frame
• increase the basket height

The basket is designed to take our Prince fuel cylinders however the height of the basket can be increased to accommodate King fuel cylinders. Sport baskets offer 2 options, how to distribute fuel cylinders in the basket. One where one cylinder goes in each corner and the other where 3 cylinders fit along one side (very useful as a desk for competitions) and the 4th goes into one of the other corners.

Ultralight Basket Technology

The main elements used to reduce the weight of these baskets are:

• Aluminum instead of steel basket frames.
• Composite floor instead of plywood (this composite material was designed specifically for these baskets)
• Lighter top handles instead of a rope going all around the basket
• Open weave on two sides

Dimensions and Weights

* This is the exact dimension of the bottom outer part of a basket. For loading the basket into a vehicle we recommend to add 8 - 10 cm (3 - 4 inch) for handles and 15 - 20 cm (6 - 8 inch) for top padding.
** Baskets designed to fit  the Prince size cylinders can be on request built to accommodate the King size cylinders.

Suitable certified combinations of baskets, burners, and envelopes are listed in this table.