by Tom Hamilton
Dave Liniger, pilot and chairman of RE/MAX International held a press conference at the Denver Museum of Natural History on May 7 to toss his hat into the around-the-world ring. This new entry comes with a twist. Liniger has joined forces with Bob Martin and John Wallington as the major sponsor in Martin's high altitude, Southern hemisphere attempt. Balloon Life attended the announcement to learn more about Team RE/MAX's plans.
Team RE/MAX mission goals include: being the first manned balloon flight around-the-world; a new manned ballooning altitude record (estimated at 130,000 feet); performance of numerous scientific studies (including ozone measurements, upward lighting and others); an educational curriculum (grades K through 12) on the Internet accessible through http://www.remax.com/.
Liniger first was first approached with the idea of flying a balloon around-the-world in 1988 by Chauncy Dunn. Dunn proposed the very same technology that will be used on this attempt, a stratospheric balloon. Liniger told Balloon Life, "For various reasons, we were not able to go ahead with Chauncy's plan at that time, but I have thought about it from time to time. Now the time seems to be right. There is a lot of excitement with so many attempts in the past few years and with the challenge of the largest prize in aviation history, offered by Anheuser-Busch."
Earlier this year Liniger began thinking seriously about making the attempt as a solo venture. "We had a team of researchers investigating the idea of my attempting this trip solo." said Liniger. "During our research we became aware that the very technology we were looking at had already been developed by Bob and John, but they were in need of additional funding. It seemed logical for us to pool our resources and talents. And, because the RE/MAX organization has almost 90 hot air balloons, the largest corporate fleet in the world, this mission is a natural for us. I am very excited to be a part of this great adventure."
The envelope is being built by
Raven Industries, utilizing the same specifications as NASA scientific balloons
which fly in the stratosphere, the radiation controlled balloon (RACCOON).
The envelope carries a 6,000 pound pressurized (8-foot by 7-foot) cylindrical
gondola and will lift into the stratosphere in the first four hours. Filled
with 170,000 cubic feet of helium for launch, the balloon envelope expands
to nearly 40 million cubic feet (about 459 feet diameter) at full cruising
altitude. Fully expanded, the balloon envelope could easily contain the
entire Houston Astrodome. The launch window at Alice Springs, Australia,
historic site of NASA balloon flights opens in late December.
"We are very pleased to join Dave Liniger and his excellent staff all of whom bring new and exciting ideas to this project," Bob Martin told Balloon Life. "John and I have had a deep belief in this mission for years, and now we have the perfect teammates in Dave and the RE/MAX people."
"One of the most exciting things is the educational curriculum," said Liniger. "A full teaching program is being designed in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French for classrooms to follow this flight. There will be studies in geography, mathematics, meteorology, and national cultures all on the Internet web site for all age groups. We hope teachers will visit the site for classroom planning this fall."
Two command centers will be established for launch and mission flight days. One will be located in the Denver, Colorado area. The second will be located at Alice Springs, Australia, site of the launch and planned recovery.
According to Martin, "We
will have state of the art communications systems including telephone, radio,
and television via satellite and microwave, high frequency (for air traffic
and ham radio operations), as well as VHF communications with airliners.
Daily radio television broadcasters as well as written communications via
Internet e-mail from the stratosphere were planned." Cameras from National
Geographic magazine will also be on board.
Alice Springs, Australia is located just South of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the flight path of Team RE/MAX is expected to be a mostly straight line westerly over Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia on the African continent; Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile in South America, numerous small islands and thousands of miles over the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Stratospheric winds during the summer in the Southern hemisphere are fairly predictable and constant. The flight is expected to last 16 to 18 days.
"As with most aircraft, there are two really critical timesthe take off and the landing," said Liniger. "The Team RE/MAX crew will be prepared for events of all kinds and at all times. Of course, this mission is not without risk, but then if it were, none of us would be interested in taking the trip, right?"
Indeed the most difficult part of the flight will be trying to land. While Team RE/MAX shouldn't have much trouble flying back over the Australian continent, trying to bring the gas balloon down for a landing will prove very difficult. Having to valve enough gas to bring the balloon down from the expected cruise altitude of 80,000 to 130,000 feet will require having to expend a very large quantity of ballast to land without cratering into the ground. Hawthorne Gray in his 1927 altitude flights to 40,000 feet had to bail out on the way down because there was not enough gas left in his envelope to slow his descent rate.
NASA has never tried to land one of their high altitude research balloons. The current altitude record is held by Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather at 113,733 feet. The flight took place in 1961 with a landing at sea. Some of the high altitude research flights, like Manhigh, did return the pilot and gondola to a landing on ground. But, these system were much smaller than the Team RE/MAX system.
Will they be able to land it? That is the great question, since no one has ever landed one of these giant balloons. Helium will be released from three vents at the top of the balloon and begin a controlled descent. As the balloon descends through the very cold troposphere, they will try to control the descent rate to 400 to 500 feet per minute. When the balloon comes out of the troposphere, the descent rate will double. Ballast, lead shot, will be used to slow the final descent to 200 to 400 feet per minute for landing.
Landing is the important word. For if the flight team is unable to land the balloon and they have to bail out there will be no records, regardless of what they have achieved. The highest flight of a manned balloon is 123,500 feet made by Nicholas Piantanida in 1966. He had planned to parachute back to earth but a malfunction resulted in the gondola having to be cut away from the envelope and parachuted back to earth. Piatanida did not get an altitude record.
The challenges are formidable but Martin can now see his many years of effort and determination coming to fruition.
Flight Crew
Dave Liniger, 52, is one of America's
most dynamic entrepreneurs. RE/MAX co-founder and chairman of the board,
Liniger is an instrument-rated multi-engine commercial pilot and has been
involved with ballooning since 1978, when the first red, white and blue
RE/MAX Hot Air Balloon debuted at the Albuquerque International Balloon
Fiesta. There are now nearly 90 RE/MAX Balloons worldwide, the organization's
major charity fund-raising vehicle and the largest corporate balloon fleet
anywhere. Besides RE/MAX, the business interests of Liniger and his wife
and business partner, Gail, include home-building operations, a travel agency,
a NASCAR track, one of the most successful Arabian horse breeding enterprises
in North America, and an award-winning private golf course, Sanctuary. Dave
is also a NASCAR race car driver, competing in the Featherlite Southwest,
Winston West, and RE/MAX Challenge NASCAR touring series. An avid outdoorsman
as well, he has enjoyed fishing, shooting, and scuba diving throughout the
world.
Bob Martin, 44, earned his pilot's license at
age 17 in Socorro, N.M., and logged most of his early flying hours as a
mission search pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. Now with more than 3,000
hours of piloting time in airplanes, helicopters and balloons, Martin is
a flight instructor and holds a commercial pilot's license with multi-engine,
instrument and rotorcraft ratings. He also has an expert parachutist license
with 300 freefall parachute jumps at altitudes of up to 31,500 feet (9,545
meters). His full-time job is science reporter, photographer and pilot for
KRQE-TV in Albuquerque. He also filmed and narrated a number of documentaries
distributed on the PBS network. Assignments have taken him from the South
Pole, Japan and Afghanistan to Russia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Gulf
War. He covered training and the flights of several New Mexico astronauts,
and he served as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician for seven years
with a local fire department. Martin is single and lives in Albuquerque,
N.M.
John Wallington, 42, and his wife
and fellow balloonist, Christie Birkett, own and operate the Canberra branch
of Balloon Aloft, one of Australia's largest commercial ballooning enterprises.
A year after he became a balloon flight instructor in 1987, Wallington won
his first of several titles as Australian National Balloon Champion. In
1993, after many other teams had failed in their attempts, Wallington and
fellow Australian, Dick Smith, became the first in history to fly a balloon
across the Australian continent. The epic voyage carried them 2,480 miles
(4,000 kilometers) in just 40 hours. In 1994, Wallington went on to set
the world altitude record for Roziere balloons. He also worked as mission
controller for the first solo transcontinental balloon across Australia.
In 1995, he was awarded the world's most prestigious ballooning honor, the
Montgolfiere Diploma, for his record-setting achievements in ballooning.
The same year, his balloon company was presented with one of his country's
highest business honors, the National Tourism Award, recognizing Balloon
Aloft as Australia's "Most Significant Local Attraction."
