Awesome Inflatable

Sierra Space is helping to develop the first commercial space station. As part of their testing program, they subjected their full-scale soft-sided LIFE habitat to excess pressure to measure how much would cause it to burst. The structure passed with flying colors, besting NASA’s x4 safety standards by 27%. The big boom happens around the 5:50 mark.

Lying on the ground in your sleeping bag is no fun without support for your head and neck. Trekology’s inflatable pillow takes up virtually no space in your pack but can help you get a good night’s sleep wherever your travels take you. It’s great for catching ZZZs on airplanes, trains, and bus rides too.

When camping requires something small that emits lots of light, get lit with Klymit’s Everglow Light Tube. The USB-powered 270-lumen LED light fits in your pocket but inflates to become an 18″, 26″, or 34″ tube with a carabiner loop that attaches to your tent, awning, or car door.

Composer and artist Sky Macklay shows off her Harmonitree, a wonderfully inventive musical instrument that plays harmonicas. It uses a tree-shaped inflatable airbag to push air through its harmonicas and can be left to make music on its own, but it is best when given a big hug for interactive sounds. She’s also built one that triggers with motion sensors.

Maker Connor Holland has previously shown us how he creates puffy metal objects by hydroforming. He teamed up with artist Hanna Clarkson to create a wearable armored puffer coat by welding together sheets of steel and then inflating them with compressed air or water. The finished suit looks like the Michelin Man and a Dalek had a child.

This palm-sized air pump is great for quickly inflating pool toys and air mattresses. It weighs just over 3 ounces, and can fill inflatables quickly. It comes with five air nozzles, can vacuum air out, and has a built-in 400-lumen lantern. For a bigger battery with more air capacity and faster filling speeds, there’s a larger Giga Pump 3.0.

The Bajao Cabin effectively turns your inflatable paddleboard into an air mattress while adding protection from the elements. Its inflatable airframe provides a lightweight structure, and its removable flysheet has mosquito netting underneath so you can sleep under the stars. The whole tent can also be used directly on the ground or on your roof rack.

The Space Acacia brings indoor comfort outdoors. More than a tent, it provides a comfortable living space with a cushy, inflatable floor and lots of headroom. It’s built to withstand strong winds and keep occupants comfortable in every season, thanks to its double-walled construction, canopy layer, and ventilation. Coming to Indigogo 6.6.2023.

Crua’s latest tent is built with a sound-dampening and light-blocking material that provides privacy indoors our out. Thanks to its air-beam construction, it sets up in less than a minute. It’s got plenty of ventilation, and its shell resists water and provides insulation. It measures 6.4 ft wide, 6.8 ft long, and 4 ft high at its peak.

Drug store beach chairs don’t cut it when you can opt for a portable chair that’s this comfy and easy to pack. Similar to Bote’s Aero chair, the AeroRondak is an inflatable Adirondack-style chair (with tables in the armrests!) It can be carried like a backpack and inflates in minutes for camping, tailgating, boating, and lazing at the shore.

Like BOTE’s inflatable Hangout chair, but don’t have a swimming pool? The Aero Chair works great on solid ground. It weighs just 7 lb and folds up small for easy carrying. Inflated, it offers a comfortable, low-profile seat, with a side storage pouch and an optional cup holder. It comes in two sizes as well as a 2-person couch version.

What’s up SUP? Stand-up paddleboarding has a super-stable inflatable that makes the fastest growing watersport easy to pick up, pack up, and set up. Bote’s affordable Wulf Aero 10′4″ Inflatable Paddle Board weighs just 29 lb., fully loaded with an adjustable paddle, removable fin, hand pump, repair kit, and travel bag.

MicroNovelty’s inflatable furniture lets you set up a living room anywhere. But unlike other inflatables you need to blow up with an external pump, the Aerogogo couch and side chair have a built-in inflator fan, which does all of the work with the flip of a switch. The single-seater inflates in 2 minutes, while the couch takes 4 minutes.

Bote’s compact Rackham Aero 11’ Inflatable Paddle Board is lighter, smaller, and more portable than full-size boards, packing into a tidy 44″× 20″× 17″ travel bag. The No Quarter Limited Edition includes a ton of extras like a cooler, tackle rack, sand spear, and MagneKoozie magnetic drinkware for sips while you SUP.

How Ridiculous is back to dropping water-filled weights onto a giant inflatable blob to see how high they can launch things. Among the items they launched from it this time are a disco ball, a couch, a TV, and a pair of jet skis.

The guys from How Ridiculous love to drop stuff from a height to see what happens to when it hits the bottom. But instead of just smashing things this time, they placed objects on one side of an airbag, then dropped weights onto the other side to see how high they could launch things.

Weighing just 62 pounds, GentleTent’s inflatable tent puts a spacious camping shelter on your pickup truck. The rooftop area can hold a full-size mattress, while the bed section has a standing height of 7+ feet. When not in use, it folds to just 7″ high. Perfect for dual-cab Rangers, Colorados, Frontiers, and Tacomas.

When airplanes reach the end of their journeys, some of them end up a Aircraft End-of-Life-Solutions, a Dutch company that dismantles and recycles airplanes. While clearing out some bits and pieces a few years back, they decided to pop open one of those self-inflating evacuation slides, with amusing results.

Engineers from Stanford University have been working on an unusual design for a robot that uses inflatable tubes for its body. It can move about and change shapes by squeezing on its air bladders, and can pack up small when not in use. It’s like the more evolved cousin of the wacky waving tube guy.

Located in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Angelo’s II restaurant likes to celebrate the holidays in an epic fashion. For Halloween 2019, they decorated the exterior of their building with an inflatable Stay-Puft marshmallow man emerging from the roof, and giant kraken tentacles bursting from its windows. Video by Mon Valley Drone.

This oversize 15′ x 15′ version of the classic game of human contortion is designed to make things more challenging, as players attempt to move on top of a cushion of air. You could spend $2k on this, or you could just go buy a Twister Ultimate set and tape it onto an air mattress, but then again, that won’t hold 1500 pounds like this version.

Sun Pleasure’s Bay Breeze Boat Island is an oversized floating vessel that looks like a speedboat, but is actually just an inflatable raft on steroids. It has seating for up to six people, and has a built-in drink cooler and cup holders. It’s currently sold out, though you might find one on eBay.

Mojow offers flat-pack seating with inflatable backs, arms, and cushions. They come in a variety of colors and in opaque or transparent materials and single seat and sofa styles. Depending on the size, they can support between about 265 lb to 529 lb.