| RISES | Goes up like a hot-air balloon |
| RISE | Go up like a hot-air balloon |
| ALOFT | Like a hot air balloon in use |
| ATOMBOMB | A male duck nibbling crest of milkweed that goes up like a mushroom (4,4) |
| SOAR | Go up like a rocket |
| ASCENDS | Goes up, like 100 final steps (7) |
| BASKET | A woven "canasta"; a virtual shopping cart; a hot-air balloon's gondola; a group of currencies; or, a netted hoop in which to dunk a ball (6) |
| GONDOLA | Venetian boat; passenger car of a ski lift or a Ferris wheel; or, a basket of a hot-air balloon (7) |
| VENT | Hole at the top of a hot air balloon which enables the pilot to release hot air (4) |
| ENVELOPE | Paper wrapper for a letter; the canopy of a hot-air balloon; or, in music, the "shape" of a sound |
| RIGGING | Cordage that supports a ship's masts/sails or joins a hot-air balloon's basket to its envelope; or, aerial apparatus for a flying trapeze (7) |
| BALLAST | Heavy material used to stabilise a ship or a hot air balloon. (7) |
| ANCHOR | Device for mooring a boat or tethering a hot-air balloon; or, the person at the rear in tug-of-war (6) |
| NYE | Bill who sings a song about death before flying a hot-air balloon into power lines, on an episode of Smiling Friends |
| RIPCORD | Mechanism for releasing a parachute from its pack or for opening a hot-air balloon's envelope, causing the latter to descend (7) |
| BALLASTS | Stabilizes, as a hot-air balloon |
| ASCEND | Group in a hot-air balloon |
| NACELLE | The car of a hot-air balloon (7) |
| SANDBAG | It can be used as ballast in a hot air balloon |
| SSS | Awful sound to hear while riding in a hot air balloon |
