by Paul McBride
The two pilots will be Per Lindstrand and Colin Prescot. Both will undergo a rigorous and lengthy training program under the guidance of the Swedish Air Force Institute of Medicine. The pilot team have a history of undertaking and successfully completing high stress aviation projects and are ideally suited for this flight program.
Per Lindstrand is a Swedish born aeronautical engineer who served in the Swedish air force. As a pilot he set and still holds all three outright world hot air balloon records. He is probably best known for the first ever crossing of the Atlantic by hot air balloon, which was made in a pressurized capsule in the jetstream at heights of up to 35,000 feet. He is resident in Britain, where he is Managing Director of one of the largest companies manufacturing balloons in the world.
Colin Prescot has been flying commercially for almost 20 years. In addition to creating and undertaking a number of complex stunts for feature films, his journey in 1981 from Scotland to South Kent (most of which was over the North Sea) was the first hot air balloon flight in history to last through a full night. The distance of 330 miles still stands as the longest ever recorded in the British Isles. He is Chief Executive of Flying Pictures, the largest operator of hot air balloons for commercial sponsorship and promotions in the world.
