by Tom Hamilton
On June 19 a news conference was
held at the Soukup & Thomas International Balloon & Airship Museum
in Mitchell, South Dakota to announce the Spirit of Peace around-the-world
by balloon flight attempt. With ballooning's great accomplishments as a
backdrop, a group of non-profit organizations announced plans to support
an expedition of the first manned non-stop circumnavigation of the globe
by balloon.
The pilots and flight teams from the United Kingdom and the United States discussed the mission at the news conference. Pilot-in-command is Jacques Soukup (USA/UK). He is joined on the flight team by pilots Mark Sullivan (US) and Crispin Williams (UK).
The team plans a launch this winter from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The flight control team will be coordinating the international flight from the Fantasy of Flight Museum/Attraction near Orlando, Florida.
Both the Soukup & Thomas International Balloon & Airship Museum and Fantasy of Flight Museum/Attraction are major partners of this mission.
The primary sponsor of the Spirit of Peace is Reverend Marta S. Weeks of the United States Episcopal Church. Based in the Diocese of Southeast Florida, her ministry and outreach includes an area from the Philippines to Panama to Russia to Paris. According to the press release announcing this endeavor, her compassion for human welfare and her desire to promote equality in a diversity of cultures, religions and political systems is the motivation for this sponsorship.
The Spirit of Peace balloon
is a combination gas and hot air balloon. The Roziere balloon is being built
by Cameron Balloons UK. It holds 550,000 cubic feet of helium gas and 24,000
cubic feet of hot air. When inflated it stands 19 stories tall. The Spirit
of Peace capsule, where the pilots will be living, is constructed from
Kevlar and carbon fiber and will have an internal pressure equivalent to
3,500 meter (12,000 feet) of altitude. The balloon will fly in the jet stream
at heights up to 42,000 feet.
Spirit of Peace joins the Virgin Challenger, Breitling Orbiter, Team RE/MAX, and Solo Spirit balloon teams in the race to be the first to fly a manned balloon around-the-world.
Lou Billones will be the chief meteorologist for this project. Billones was previously the meteorologist for Steve Fossett's Solo Spirit attempts. He will be leading a weather team operating from a specifically configured weather facility in Omaha, Nebraska. The team has been working together for many years and has more than 100 years of combined, world-wide experience in every aspect of weather forecasting.
The flight of Spirit of Peace will push the state of the art in long range forecasting to the limit. This will include the integration of specialized balloon operations, unique flight conditions, telecommunications systems and weather forecasting using numerical modeling.
The outside air temperature at the maximum planned altitude of 42,000 feet will be minus 70 degrees. Meteorological challenges will include the avoidance of thunderstorms, hurricanes, and turbulence over the Himalayan mountains. There is also the need for near calm surface winds at the time of launch, with the southern branch of the Polar Jet Stream simultaneously positioned overhead, oriented such that the balloon's track will take it rapidly into southern Europe or the Mediterranean.
Spirit of Peace hopes to become the first manned non-stop circumnavigation of the globe by balloon. This non-commercial adventure is made possible primarily by the donations of individuals and the involvement of non-profit organizations. As the mission glides around the world it will promote equality for all and a genuine concern for human welfare among a diversity of cultures, religions, and political systems.
Spirit of Peace Crew
Jacques Soukup - Pilot-in-Command
A resident of Lacock, Wiltshire,
UK and a US Citizen, Jacques started ballooning in hot air balloons in 1979
and received his gas balloon rating in 1983. He has extensive international
ballooning experience with over 2000 hours in hot air, gas and Roziere balloons.
Along with his partner, Kirk S. Thomas, Jacques was a pioneer in the development
and popularization of special shaped balloons, such as the heads of Uncle
Sam and Carmen Miranda. A major player on the ballooning world's political
stage, Jacques was President of the Balloon Federation of America for two
years and President of the Ballooning Commission of the Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale, the world's air sport and record setting
Federation, for nearly 4 years. In March, 1985, Jacques and co-pilot Don
Cameron established eight world records in Roziere balloons and in March
of 1987 Jacques added eight additional altitude records in that balloon,
raising his world records to a total of 16. In 1986, Jacques placed third
in the US Gas Balloon Championship and fourth in the World Gas Balloon Championship
with Mark Sullivan in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. In October 1988 he and David
Levin finished third in the World Gas Balloon Championship in Augsburg,
West Germany. He has also won the Robert Maxwell Trophy at the Leeds Castle
(UK) Meet and has flown in three Coupe Gordon Bennett gas balloon long distance
races. Soukup and partner Kirk Thomas founded the Soukup & Thomas International
Balloon & Airship Museum.
Crispin J. Williams - Pilot
A resident of Langford,
Somerset, UK, Crispin started ballooning in hot air balloons in 1974 with
the Anglia Aeronauts Ascension Association after 13 years as a fixed wing
pilot including time in the Royal Air Force as an RAF Navigator. Once he
discovered ballooning, however, he gave up flying heavier-than-air aircraft.
He achieved his private pilot's license (PPL) in balloons in 1974 and flew
in the first UK National Championship in 1975. Crispin Williams and his
wife and crew chief Sara have attended every UK National Championship since
then. An accomplished balloonist, Crispin has been the highest placed pilot
at a World Championship and can normally be found in the top ten finishers
at European Hot Air Balloon Championships.
Williams participates in ballooning on many levels. In addition to being a world-class competitor, he is also a pilot instructor and a Private and Commercial Pilot License examiner for the Civil Aviation Authority for balloons and airships. He is also a balloon and airship inspector for the British Balloon & Airship Club. As a profession, he is in sales at Thunder and Colt Balloons in Bristol, UK. He has won the UK National Hot Air Balloon Championship four times and in 1985 was the highest placed pilot at the World Hot Air Balloon Championship.
Mark Sullivan - Pilot
A resident of Albuquerque,
New Mexico, USA, Mark started ballooning in hot air balloons in 1982 and
received his gas balloon rating in 1985. He holds a USA commercial license
and has 1350 hours in balloons, with 400 of them in gas balloons. He has
achieved Level VIII of the Balloon Federation of America Pilot Achievement
Program, Level IX of the FAA Wings Program and holds the Gold Sporting Badge
with Three Diamonds from the Ballooning Commission of the Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale. He has also received the prestigious
Montgolfier Diploma from the FAI Ballooning Commission, ballooning's highest
award.
Mark Sullivan participates in ballooning on many levels. He is a world class competitor as well as an international event organizer and a representative to national and international ballooning organizations. As a competitor Sullivan has won the 1992 North American Championship, 1995 US Team Championship, and 1995 US Gas Balloon Championship.
The Rev. Marta Sutton Weeks - Primary sponsor
An Episcopal priest canonically resident in the Diocese of Southeast Florida,
USA. Her ministry and outreach extend from the Philippines to Panama to
Russia to Paris. To relax, she is usually involved with a gardening project
in Utah in the summer, supplying vegetables to a local soup kitchen. She
also serves as interim priest and hospital chaplain.
Rev. Weeks was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is a graduate of Stanford University. She had an early calling to the priesthood but was not able to fulfill it until later in life when the church approved the ordination of women. In 1991, she graduated from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas and was ordained priest in 1992.
Rev. Weeks is a strong supporter of education, donating both time and money. As a trustee of the University of Miami where she serves on Academic Affairs as well as chairman of the Student Affairs Committee. She also supports a variety of other causes including the International Solar Energy Society, the YWCA and the Center for Sexuality and Religion.
She is married to a geologist. One of their children Kermit is a world class aerobatics pilot, founder of the Weeks Air Museum (located at Tamiami Airport, Miami), as well as the Fantasy of Flight attraction in Polk City, Florida. Sport aviation runs in the entire family. Marta's sister and daughter both have soloed in airplanes, her niece has a fixed-wing pilot's license, and her nephew Kirk Thomas is a hot air balloonist and airship pilot.
