Balloon Life,October2000

6

PREFLIGHT

Anderson AbruzzoIBM
The Anderson Abruzzo International
BalloonMu seum,Albu querque,New
Mexico, has announced itstarget for the
inaugurationto coincide withthe Kodak
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
inOctober 2002.
“Thiswillbeaone-of-a-kindmu-
seum,opentheyeararound,”Rodger
Beimer, Executive Director of the Ander-
son Foundation toldBalloon Life, “and its
location willmake it a close, convenient
companiontotheKodakAlbuquerque
InternationalBalloonFiesta,thelargest
eventof itskindin the world.
“The museum will have exhibits and
displaysillustratingballooningof every
kind—recreational,competitive, scientific
andtechnical—andrecognizingtheac-
complishmentsandadventureso fthe
many pilots, inventors, buildersandoth-
erswhohavecontributedtoballooning
during its 217-year history. Balloons have
beenusedindozensofdifferentways,
includingsport,espionage,reconnais-
sance, air sampling,researchanddevel-
opment. We plantocover them all.”
Located at the City of Albuquerque’s
BalloonFiesta Park onthe northern out-
skirtsofAlbuquerquenear Interstate25
leadingtoSantaFe,themuseumwill
contain approximately 20,000 square feet
of exhibit space, plus30,000squarefeet
of lobby, meeting, storage, and workshop
areas.
The museum will be built and oper-

ated by the City of Albuquerque, which is
using$7.2 millionin Qualityof Life tax
fundingfortheproject.Theprojecthas
alsoreceivedfundingfromtheStateof
New Mexico, andthe Anderson Founda-
tion,whichhasraisedsome$550,000
from private individuals andinstitutions.
Fundraisingefforts continue.
The museum will bear the names of
twowellknownAlbuquerqueballoon-
ists,thelateBenAbruzzoandMaxie
Anderson,who, witha thirdpilot, Larry
Newman, werethe firsttoflyaballoon
across the Atlantic Oceanin1978. Their
laterexploitsincludedthefirstflights
acrossNorthAmericaandthePacific
Ocean and the first global flight attempts.
Anderson died in a ballooning accident in
1983andAbruzzodiedinanairplane
crash in1985.
Formoreinformationco ntactthe
Maxie L. Anderson Foundation, Inc., PO
Box16314,Albuquerque,NM87191,
phone5 05 -2 71 -2 11 9,Internet:
www.balloonmuseum.com

Soukup Thomas IBAM
The Soukup & Thomas International
Balloon&AirshipMuseum,Mitchell,
South Dakota, has been operated the last
fewyearsbyaconcessionaire.OnSep-
tember18, the Mitchell City Council voted
to cease funding that the city has contrib-
uted to keep the museum open. Should the
museum close its doors permanently, the
by-lawsgoverning thecollectionowned

by the non-profit museum call for the
collection to go to another balloon mu-
seum. Several museums will likely com-
pete for the prized collection, largely
funded by Jacques Soukup and Kirk Tho-
mas. They include the Anderson Abruzzo
International Balloon Museum in Albu-
querque, the National Balloon Museum
in Indianola, Iowa, and a new lighter-
than-air museum currently being planned
for Akron, Ohio.

World Records
The FédérationAéronautique Inter-
nationale has receivedadurationrecord
claim byLaurentLajoye andChristophe
Houver for a duration record in the Rozier
(mixed gas)AM-07 category of146 hours,
49minutes,and24seconds.Theduo
completedthe firstFrenchballoonteam
crossing of the Atlantic earlySeptember
in a Lindstrand built Roziere balloon. See
Roziere Flies Home to France page 22.

CompetitionResults
7th World Hot Air Airship Cham-
pionship
Held September 1-10 in Schielleiten,
Austria the top three places were wonby
Jacque-Antoine Besnard of Switzerland,
Charles-AndréBesnardofSwitzerland,
and Rainer Hasenclever of Germany. The
full results are available on the Internet at:
http://events.fai.org/ballooning/whas2000/
Continued on page 8

Artist rendering of the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico .

Balloon Life,October 2000

8

Coupe Gordon Bennett
Held September 9-14 in St-Hubert,
Belgium. The objective of the event tofly
thegreatestdistancefromthestarting
point.Thetopthree teamsflyingthegreat-
est distance were first Wilhelm Eimers
and Bernd Landsmann of Germany trav-
eling 795 km, second place went toRich-
ard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis of
the USA at 745 km, and third place was
wonby Rien JurgandRon Van Houtenof
the Netherlands at 623 km. The full re-
sultscan be found on the Internet at: http:/
/events.fai.org/ballooning/2000bennett/

FAI News
The International Ballooning Com-
mittee has announced the 2000 inductees
to the CIA Balloon and Airship Hall of
Fame.
Mr. Karl Stefan, USA, born July 28,
1916 inOmaha, Nebraska. Officer, pilot,
engineer,balloon pilot and LTAengi-
neer. Mr. Stefan is a graduate of the U.S.
NavalAcademy, was a LTA engineer for
the National Center for Atmospheric Re-
search, research engineer for The Balloon
Works, the Tyler Airship Company, and
the ILC-Dover projects. He has written
numerous papers on ballooning, set hot
air balloon altitude world records, and is
past president ofthe International Bal-
looning Commission. Hewas awarded
the Montgolfier Diploma in 1971.
Posthumouslyinductedwerethe
RobertbrothersofFrance.Anne-Jean
Robert(1758-1820)andMarie-NoëlRob-
ert (1760-1820)were skilled mechanical
constructors.Theyassistedprofessor
Jacques Alexandre CésarCharles build
the first usable hydrogen balloons. The
Roberts developed a method to dissolve
rubberin turpentine.This mixture was
used to varnish the silk used to construct
the envelopes of the balloons. August27,
1783 Professor Charles and the Robert

brothers publicly demonstrated a hydro-
gen balloon—a rubberized silk sphere.
OnDecember 1,1783, theyoungerbrother
accompanied Charles on the first human
flight ina gas balloon. The Robert broth-
ers experimented usingoars, withoutsuc-
cess, to control direction. Together with
Collin-Hullin,September 19, 1784, made
a flight in an elongated hydrogen balloon
usingparasolstotryandcontroldirection.
The flight lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes
and was the first flight more than 100 km
(186 km in a straight line) from Paris to
Beuvry near Bethune. The balloons con-
structed for Charles had all the attributes
stillfound today in modern gas balloons.
The envelope wascovered witha netfrom
thewhichthecarwas suspended,the
envelope had a valve fitted and the bal-
looncarried ballastin the form of sand to
control altitude.
Fédération Aéronautique Internatio-
nale has announced a long term partner-
shipwith a television channel:Discovery
Wings Channel, the premier destination
for airsports enthusiasts in the USA and
North America.
Eilif Ness, FAI President, and Tim
Knatchbull, Director of developmentand
program partnershipsfor Discovery Digi-
tal Network, signed the agreement Sep-
tember 27 in Linköping, Sweden, at the
FAIannualGeneralConference, attended
by delegates from the 93 member coun-
tries.
“Weare extremely proud tocontinue
our work with FAI and our new agree-
ment significantly augments Discovery
Digital Networkscontinuing efforts to
presenttimely,in-depth,andpersonalpro-
gramming for our viewers,said Charly
Humbard, senior vice president and gen-
eral manager for DDN.”
“FAIispleasedtohave reachedagree-
ment with a prestigious network such as
Discovery Digital Networks, “said Eilif

Ness, FAI president, “and more specifi-
cally with a channel that intends to ex-
plain airsports to the public as well as
showspectacularimages. Thisagreement
is undoubtedly a very important step in
FAI’s effort to give airsports the wide
television exposure they deserve.”
The Discovery Wings channel part-
nership will include three one hour pro-
gramsontheFAI2000Worldspeedgliding
championships in Greece, the FAI 2000
WorldAerobaticsChampionshipsin
Muret, France, and the FAI 2000 World
Cup of skydiving in Eloy, USA. These
eventswill bepartofanewmonthly
series: “Sports on Wings”, scheduled to
launchinthesecondquarterof2001.
Discovery Wings Channel willalso have
the exclusive North American broadcast
rightsfor the FAI2001 World AirGames.
The monthly, one-hour series, will
air intheUSAonDiscovery WingsChan-
nel, and on Discovery’s internationalnet-
work in the UK, LatinAmerica and Asia.
Said Tim Knatchbull, “this is a partner-
ship made in heaven—or at least in the
skies.”
OnFriday29Septem ber,Mr
WolfgangWeinreich(Germany)was
elected President of the FédérationAéro-
nautique Internationale (FAI) at its An-
nualGeneralConferenceheldin
Linköping, Sweden.
Mr Weinreich is a former Lufthansa
747Chief Pilot,and iscurrentlyPresident
of the FAI’s German member organiza-
tion, theDeutscherAero Club, and of
Europe Airsports, the Europe-wide orga-
nization responsible for regulatory mat-
ters insportingaviation. Mr. Weinreich is
a keen glider pilot. He succeeds Mr. Eilif
Ness (Norway) who had served as FAI
Presidentforthemaximumtermof6
years.