December 2000
feet
Cheryl Stearns plans to fly a balloon
to 130,000 feet in 2001. But, if successful,
her worldrecordwon’t be in ballooning.
At that altitude she plans on jumping out
of the perfectly goodballoon.
Hergoalistosetanewworldsky
dive record,
surp assi ng
Joe
Kittin ger’s
jumpfrom
1 0 2, 80 0
feet.Wear-
ingapres-
s uri ze d
sp aces uit
she will free
fall for four
minutes.
Stearns,
45, is a com-
mercialairlinecaptainonBoeing737s
and a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.
Stearns will dive at speeds of 1,300mph
beforeopeningherparachuteat8,000
feet.Itwilltakehertwo-halfhoursto
reachthealtitudeandjustfourorfive
minutes to come down. It’s a challenge no
one has attempted since Nick Piantanida
diedin1966(SeeBalloon LifeSeptem-
ber, 1997,The Race to Space).
Stearns project is dubbed StartoQuest.
To prepare, she is being assisted by a team
called HALO (High-Altitude, Low Open-
ing), which iscomposedof suchprofes-
sionalsasengineers,doctors,aviation
experts, and military personnel. The mis-
sionisdedicatednotonlytosettinga
worldrecord,butalsotohelpingscien-
tific research, space exploration, and edu-
cation.ForStearns,the teamhasdevel-
opedajumpsuitthatisresistanttoex-
treme sub-zerotemperatures,sunbeams,
and radiation. She will needit; when she
jumps, she will be above 99 percent of the
Earth’s atmosphere.
Stearns will ride to 130,000 feet in a
balloon made out of Mylar and will stand
360feettall.Aninternationalfilm team
documentthe missionfromair and
ground. Theyare marketing theconcept
as a possible pay-per-view special, or as a
networkor cable special.
FormoreinformationaboutCheryl
Stearnsandherprojectvisittheseweb
sites . www.cherlystearns.coman d
www.stratoquest.com.
Record
Lindsay Muir,United Kingdom, flew
aLindstrandLBL-210AfromPaddock
Wood, Kent, UK toLisbourg, France on
May21,2000inatimeof19hours,7
minutesand55seconds.The Fédération
Aéronautique Internationalehasratified
her Class A (Free balloons) world records
for durationinthe AX-10to15 category
of hotairballoons.The previousworld
records in that category were held by Jetta
Schantz, United States, of 15 hours and 11
minutesset February4, 1996.(SeeBal-
loon LifeMarch 1996Two For The Record
Books.)
The 2001 Kodak Albuquerque Inter-
nationalBalloonFiesta willlaunch750
hot air balloons when the nine-day event
launchesonOcto ber6 th.Thesixth
America’sChallengeGasBalloonRace
willalsobe heldduringthe BalloonFi-
esta.
The decision to reduce the number of
the 30thannual
event was made for avariety ofreasons by
theboardofdirectors. “Itisanissueof
qualityoverqu antity,”BalloonFiesta
BoardpresidentHarrySeasontoldBal-
loon Life. “Placing more of a focus on the
pilots willresult onlarger launch spaces
and more uniformed launch sites. Placing
more of an emphasis onpilots,sponsors
and spectatorswillallow the BalloonFi-
esta toimprove the quality of the event.”
Lastyear BalloonFiestaorganizers
registered 1,019 balloons and handilyset
a GuinnessWorld Record for staging the
largestballoonlaunch.Hosting750bal-
loon teams still positions Albuquerque as
thelargestannualballooneventinthe
world bythree fold.
The 2001 Kodak Albuquerque Inter-
nationalBalloonFiesta,30thJourney,
will be conducted October 6th through the
14th.
Ballonbau Wörner GmbH Augsburg
Germany, maker of gas balloons, has an-
nounced theirnew homepage on theworld
wide web— www.ballonbau.de. The ma-
terialcan be viewedin bothEnglishand
German.
A leadingmanufacturerof gasbal-
loonsintheworld,BallonbauWoerner
Corporation was established in 1986 with
the transfer of ownershipfrom Leonhard
Stu tt gartBall on
Manufacturin gin
Au g sb urg .Si nce
1988 the company’s
700squaremeter
manufacturinghall
has been locatedon
Zi rgelSt reeti n
Augsburg.
WoernerBal-
loons main business
isthedevelopment
andprodu ctionof
gas-filledballoo ns
for passenger trans-
portation. They also
developandmanu-
