In the last sixteen years six different teams have made 14 attempts at flying around-the-world in a balloon. Acclaimed as the last great aviation challenge, the feat has taken on the aura of a true race. In January three teams launched within a week of one another, writing another chapter into the continuing saga of who will be first.
The early around-the-world attempts by Maxi Anderson and Don Ida were made using a gas balloon. Anderson, Ben Abruzzo, and Larry Newman had won the race across the Atlantic in 1978 with an Ed Yost built model. Abruzzo, Newman, Rocki Aoki, and Ron Clark, in 1981, were the first to cross the Pacific with another Yost gas balloon.
Compared to a circumnavigation of the globe these ocean crossings were relatively short flights. The gas and ballast requirements for a gas model to go all the way around the earth are considerable.
Don Cameron, having made his own attempt at being first across the Atlantic, began research and design into a combination gas and hot air balloon. His work first proved successful when in 1986 Henk Brink and crew made the first successful Atlantic crossing in a Roziere balloon.
Cameron himself would later make a long distance flight from England to Russia in a hybrid balloon.
Then came the Chrysler Atlantic Challenge in 1992. Five teams flying identical Cameron built Roziere balloons raced across the Atlantic. The race was won by Bertrand Piccard and Wim Verstraeten. Richard Abruzzo (Ben's son) and Troy Bradley of Albuquerque, New Mexico established a new duration record of 144 hours and 16 minutes. Roziere balloons were now firmly established as the long distance balloon of choice.
Julian Nott throughout the 1980s had been the loudest challenger to a transglobal flight. Nott signed on many sponsors, tested a Superpressure balloon, and had a gondola built. The Superpressure did not work and by 1990 Nott went to Cameron to have a Roziere envelope built.
Larry Newman tested and tried to fly a gas balloon using a pressurized ballast balloon. Although a scale model test flight looked promising, Newman was never able to make a full scale model work due to various technical problems.
In 1995 Steve Fossett amazed ballooning by flying a Cameron Roziere across the Pacific solo. A year earlier he made a practice flight across the Atlantic with pilot Tim Cole in a Roziere. Where the Atlantic was a warm-up for the Pacific flight, the Pacific flight was a warm-up for a global attempt.
The Roziere design, using a heat source instead of large amounts of ballast, became the vehicle of choice for the contenders. With a proven balloon design more aeronauts stepped forward to challenge this last great goal.
Fossett, Branson/Lindstrand, Dick Rutan who made the first non-stop, non-refueled airplane flight around-the-world, Piccard/Verstraeten who won the Chrysler Challenge, and Bob Martin all became challengers to make the first around-the-world balloon flight.
Martin, of Albuquerque, New Mexico is the exception to the Roziere rule. He wants to take a gas balloon to 120,000 feet, the edge of space, in a fully pressurized gondola. Having recently secured financial support from Dymocks Booksellers, he and his team will be in Australia next winter to make a run at being the first.
The greatest challenge over the last 16 years for around-the-world attempts has been trying to keep the equipment in the air. Virtually every attempt, with the exception of the very last one, has come short because of equipment problems.
Following are reports on the latest attempts to achieve what has been only a dream.
Virgin Global Challenger
In January of 1996 the Virgin Global Challenger team rushed their equipment
to Marrakech, Morocco when Steve Fossett lifted off from the Strato Bowl,
South Dakota. With Fossett in the air, Branson's team did not want to be
left behind.
The equipment and team members were not fully prepared and there is little doubt that Branson, et. al., breathed a sigh of relief when Fossett's equipment began to fail and he had to land in Newfoundland after three days.
With the pressure off, Per Lindstrand was able to conduct additional testing and better prepare the equipment. The three man crew of Branson, Lindstrand and Rory McCarthy were also able to take advantage of this time to do additional training.
In November, 1996 Lindstrand went to the high desert of Nevada, near Reno,
to finish his flight testing. In the process he surpassed Fossett's recent
altitude record in a Roziere balloon. Lindstrand ascended to 35,000 feet.
Immediately after the test flight the equipment was shipped to Morocco to
standby for a global attempt.
Finally, in early January the team received word from meteorologist Martin Harris that the necessary weather patterns were coming together to make the flight. Harris is a meteorology professor at the University of North London. He had been studying daily global weather charts since early November.
Global weather was not his only concern. The launch site in Marrakech is a remote area near some very high mountains. Morning surface winds can be tricky because of the flow of cool night time air. He recommended that the balloon be inflated in the darkness. To assist Harris in making accurate forecasts a team gathered daily surface wind data in Marrakech and faxed the information back to London. Additionally Harris used infrared satellite photographs of the area.
In order to prepare the equipment and have all the personnel ready for an attempt it is necessary for the team meteorologist to provide a weather alert three days before the planned launch. Not an easy task considering that two day forecasts are about the limit of accuracy. With Marrakech an isolated site, Harris' job was very difficult.
As all systems came together lift-off was set for January 7 between 6 a.m. and midday.
The evening before Rory McCarthy was not feeling well due to a chest infection from bronchitis. He takes medication and sleeps. He will be awoken two hours before lift-off at which time a final decision will be made as to whether he will go on the flight.
Richard Branson announces, "We now have the best [weather] opportunity in five years."
At 0830 hours (GMT) Rory's health has not improved and he is withdrawn from the flight. His replacement is Alex Ritchie, an Englishman, fully-trained in balloon flying and who has been responsible for the life support systems, pressurization and heating elements of the flight.
At precisely 11:19 a.m. the bolts holding the balloon were fired. The balloon rose at about 700 feet per minute under ideal conditions. The spectators, press, friends, family, and crew applauded as the balloon ascended to its cruising altitude.
As the balloon ascended it hit an inversion at approximately 10,000 feet and stopped climbing. Ballast had to be released to continue the climb to cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.
At the official press briefing in London after the flight it was reported that not until the sun went down were there any problems. The official statement said that as the gas in the balloon started to cool the Lindstrand built Roziere started a rapid descent. The burners were unable to arrest the descent. The crew began to dump ballast as fast as they could, including supplies and even an emergency bag which included $2,000.
While a great story, it's not exactly what happened. Because of the timing of the launch a jet had to be chartered from England to transport the launch crew to Marrakech. The launch sequence, which should have taken 72 hours, had to be condensed to 24 hours. The crew arrived at three o'clock in the morning. With only five hours of sleep the launch sequence was started on Monday morning for a Tuesday lift-off. As can be imagined, under this kind of pressure a few minor mistakes were made. Still, the balloon was ready on time and the lift-off flawless.
It was not until the balloon was in the air and the launch crew in a jet back to England was it discovered that all tema couplings attached to the fuel tanks had been left in the locked position. That meant none of the tanks could be released when the fuel was used up unless someone crawled up on top of the capsule and released them manually. This information was relayed to the balloon as soon as the crew reached London.
With the Virgin Challenger drifting toward the jetstream at 30 knots Lindstrand weighed his options and decided to wait for night when the balloon would cool and descend naturally. At a lower altitude the capsule could be depressurized and the task accomplished at around 10,000 feet. In this way they would not have to vent any helium.
The balloon came down to approximately 5,000 feet above the desert floor and on the lee side of the Atlas mountains. With the hatch open, but before anyone could reach the couplings, the balloon was hit by a rotor and started a "death dive" toward the desert. To arrest the descent most of the lead ballast, approximately 1300 pounds, was expended.
After stabilizing the aircraft Ritchie climbed out in the pitch black night with temperatures around minus 76 degrees and managed to release the safety catches on the tema couplings. After he returned inside, the balloon was caught in another death dive rotor and one fuel tank, weighing 2200 pounds, was released.
Richard Branson praised the courage of Ritchie saying, "[he] very likely saved [our] life."
Although the balloon stabilized at altitude, the team realized that they no longer had enough ballast to cross the Pacific and the choice was to carry on and land somewhere in China or go for a dawn landing in the Algerian desert where it would be easier to recover.
At dawn the balloon was positioned over the desert in Algeria at 2,000 feet. Their ground speed was still 30 knots. At 800 feet the balloon went through an inversion and slowed to four knots. The balloon landed firmly in soft sand without damage. The envelope was jettisoned and landed about 100 meters away.
The three crew members were lavished with hospitality in Algeria. After a few weeks the gondola returned to the factory. The envelope was left in the desert for the locals to do with as they pleased.
Interviews with Per Lindstrand and a member of the recovery team will appear next month in Balloon Life.
Breitling Orbitor
With the Virgin Challenger team now out for the season Bertrand Piccard and
Wim Verstraeten stood by in Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland. Their project being
sponsored by watch maker Breitling and the International Olympic
Committee.
Piccard, 39, a psychiatrist by profession enjoys ultralight aircraft and acrobatic hang-gliding. His grandfather Auguste Piccard was famed for his inventions: the bathyscaph deep-sea diving apparatus, the stratospheric balloon and the pressurized cabin.
Verstraeten, 39, started as an industrial photographer who has become a professional balloonist. His "Balloon Promotions" hot air balloon company has taken aloft over 10,000 people during some 2,000 flights. In 1983 he became the first Belgian balloonist to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon.
At 07:55 (GMT) on Sunday, January 12, Piccard and Verstraeten slowly lifted-off in the Breitling Orbiter in the clear morning air from Chateau d'Oex. Among the many well wishers was Richard Branson.
By 12:00 (GMT) there flight path had taken them past Mont-Blanc to just south of Grenoble. Two hours later, at an altitude of 27,000 feet, a fifty cent metal hose clamp failed and allowed a leakage of kerosene. The fumes invaded the capsule. The balloon was brought down to an altitude of 9,000 feet, an altitude that allowed the capsule to be depressurized so that the p ilots could get some fresh air.
It was decided to terminate the flight with a landing in the Mediterranean
Sea. French air-sea rescue came to the aid of the pilots who, having
jettisoned the envelope on touch down, were floating in their capsule. A
line was affixed to the capsule and towed back to France.
The capsule was then shipped to the Cameron factory in Bristol, England. The capsule and equipment were cleaned to protect them from corrosion. Most of the equipment is in good condition, and following inspection and testing can probably be used again.
The source of the leak was the metal hose clamp that is believed to have been damaged during takeoff. The spillage of kerosene in the closed-system pressurized atmosphere of the gondola made it completely impossible to continue. Kerosene at a concentration of 500 ppm causes nausea, cardiac irregularities and unconsciousness. The pilots did not reach this stage but complained of burning sensations in the throat and eyes.
The system uses kerosene, which is stored under the capsule, which is burned as a vapor to provide heating both to the capsule and as a burner for the hot air element of the balloon. A small amount of propane is used to provide the initial vaporization of the kerosene.
Breitling has decided to continue their sponsorship and expects the team to be back in place next winter.
Solo Spirit
While the Breitling team was lifting off Fossett's team was preparing his
equipment in St. Louis for a launch Monday evening January 13. At 10:46
p.m. CST (04:46 GMT January 14), Fossett made a picture perfect lifted-off.
Among the 800 spectators to cheer him on was Richard Branson.
Shortly after launch Steve sent the following message to Project Manager "Bo" Kemper, "Just got organized. Set Position report for hourly starting 07Zulu. Autopilot on at 18,000 ft. speed 41 knots track 108. One heater not working but no other problems detected...."
As daylight dawned on Tuesday morning Steve sent a message that said, "Daylight now and last landing opportunity before Atlantic. Decision is to continue across Atlantic!!!!!!!!..."
On Tuesday evening Steve did an interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline.
Now over the Atlantic, Steve reported that he has repaired his first heater and that snow is falling outside the capsule. Back at mission control in Chicago the city is blanketed with the white stuff.
Originally Steve's progress across the Atlantic was plotted to enter Europe
around England. His trajectory changed to a more southerly route. One that
would bring him over the Iberian peninsula and on toward Algeria, Libya,
Egypt and Iran. Bruce Comstock makes the statement, "Steve is making a
classic flight over the Atlantic. A very good flight."
With good speed and the Cameron built Roziere balloon performing flawlessly it did appear to be the picture perfect flight. Now to get permission to over fly the countries along the projected route.
Permission proved to be a bit of a problem. Libya did not want to grant it. Steve was able to use a southerly flow over Algeria to try and fly around Libya. During this maneuver he surpassed his absolute distance record of 8,748 kilometers. Just as it looked like he would be able to skirt Libya to the south by flying into Niger and then heading east over Chad and Sudan Libya granted permission to enter their airspace.
This came just in time as Steve was able to climb and pickup the easterly flow underneath the jet stream.
While flying over Saudi Arabia, Steve was "welcomed" by two F-16s. The temperature in the capsule was zero degrees Fahrenheit, while outside the capsule the temperature was around minus 50 degrees.
Now up for four and a half days, the balloon was using fuel at a much higher rate than anticipated. The chances of making it all the way around were very slim. The flight projections indicated that Steve would onlyhave enough fuel to make it half way across the Pacific. Definitely not a good choice for landing sites.
With the around-the-world flight having to be abandoned the decision was
made to go for the absolute duration record. As Steve approached eastern
India he descended from a cruising altitude of around 23,000 feet to 1,000
feet. The reason for doing this was to avoid the mountainous terrain of
Southeast Asia. At the lower altitude Steve was able to "hang out" over
relatively flat farm land while he waited for the necessary amount of time
to pass and break the old record.
After six days, two hours and fifty-four minutes Solo Spirit landed in Pirthiganj, India. Although it will take the Federation Aeronautique International some time to calculate his actual distance that figure will be more than 12,800 kilometers, almost half way around the world.
As the Solo Spirit staff back in Chicago celebrated his safe landing a different celebration was taking place in India. Villagers had never seen a balloon before and many took the giant sliver envelope for a floating temple and its pilot for a human incarnation of their monkey god Januman.
According to an Associated Press story villager Shayam Bahadur Singh said, "We offered him pure cow milk and we were pleased that he took two sips."
Local people helped Steve extract the balloon from trees and put it on a truck to Varansi, 95 miles away. From there the equipment was flown to New Delhi, and then home.
Next Inning
Although none of the three were able to accomplish their goal this winter,
all have gained valuable experience and will be back next year to try
again. Fossett's flight proved that an around-the-world can be done. His
team and the engineers at Cameron will be figuring out why he used as much
fuel as he did and improve the system.
The flight can be done. Who will hit the home run?
