by Tom Hamilton
Those that made into the air:
1. Jules Verne, January 12, 1981. Maxie Anderson and Don Ida launch from Luxor, Egypt. Balloon steadily lost gas and landed at Hansa, India, 2676 miles and 48 hours later.
2. Jules Verne, December 20, 1981. Maxie Anderson and Don Ida continue their quest, launching near their previous landing spot. Balloon develops bad leak early and lands after 20 miles flight.
3. Jules Verne, November 7, 1982. Maxie Anderson and Don Ida make a third attempt, this time from the Stratobowl, South Dakota. Balloon developed a leak and the flight was terminated before crossing the Atlantic. 1162 miles, 16 hours.
4. Earthwinds, January 13, 1993. Larry Newman, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, and Don Moses launch from Stead Airfield near Reno, Nevada. 30 minutes and seven miles into the flight the lower ballast balloon is torn when the system fails to clear a mountain top. The flight is terminated.
5. Earthwinds, January 12, 1994, Stead Airfield. Larry Newman, Richard Abruzzo, and David Melton take off on another attempt. Flight aborted because valve in lower ballast balloon is frozen. 202 miles, 6 hours 54 minutes.
6. Earthwinds, December 31, 1994, Stead Airfield. Larry Newman, David Melton, and George Saad reach 31,000 feet and the ballast balloon pops on New Year's Eve. 100 miles, four hours.
7. Global Challenger, January 15, 1996, Stratobowl, South Dakota. Steve Fossett's first attempt runs into trouble soon after takeoff when the mylar skin begins to come off the envelope. Other problems develop and he lands in Newfoundland, Canada two days later.
8. Virgin Global Challenger, January 7, 1997, Marrakech, Morocco. Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand, and Alex Ritchie are advised after liftoff that the ground crew had not unlocked fittings to the fuel tanks. Balloon is allowed to descend that night to depressurize and fix the problem. Caught in a severe rotor almost all ballast is expended to keep from crashing. The balloon lands after daylight in Algeria. 20 hours.
9. Breitling Orbiter, January 12, 1997, Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland. Bertrand Piccard and Wim Verstraeten run into problems soon after launch when a 50 cent metal hose clamp failed and kerosene fumes leak into the gondola. A decision is made to land in the Mediterranean Sea. The envelope is jettisoned. The capsule and crew are towed to port.
10. Solo Spirit, January 13, 1997, St. Louis, Missouri. Steve Fossett comes closer than any previous attempt when he lands in India. The balloon's planned fuel capacity proved to be too little. 10,361 miles, 146 hours, 54 minutes setting new absolute balloon records for distance and duration.
11. Virgin Global Challenger, December 9, 1997, Marrakech, Morocco. The Virgin team gambles they can attach the gondola to the inflated envelope under marginal conditions. Before that can be accomplished the envelope breaks loose and flies away.
12. Solo Spirit, December 31, 1997, St. Louis, Missouri. Steve Fossett takes off on his third attempt. He completes the fasting crossing of the Atlantic, but dumps one tenth of his fuel to climb over bad weather. Trying to maneuver around Libya he loses the best weather track. One of his burners is acting up and heater fails. Finally with nowhere to go he lands in Russia near the Black Sea. 7300 miles, 146 hours, 44 minutes.
13. J. Renée, December 31, 1997, Rockford, Illinois. Kevin Uliassi launches hours after Fossett. Has he reaches 19,000 feet the gas cell of his Roziere balloon ruptures. He is able to make a dramatic night landing with help of a helicopter and assistance from ground personnel.
14. Hilton Global Challenger, January 9, 1998, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dick Rutan and David Melton reach cruise altitude around 29,000 feet. The gas cell, with the same design of Uliassi's, ruptures. After two hours of discussions with ground crew and inflight evaluation the pilots bail out. The balloon system contacts the ground and then flies on. Eventually the balloon contacts powerlines and is destroyed in a fire north of Dallas, Texas.
15. Breitling Orbiter 2, January 28, 1998, Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland. Bertrand Piccard, Andy Elson, and Wim Verstraeten lift off. The potential flight had been delayed when the capsule was dropped during unloading on January 8 and had to be repaired. Elson makes dramatic outside the capsule repair over Mediterranean. Crew also ballast some fuel over water. China had first denies permission and the balloon finds some slow winds to stall. Although China eventually gives permission the team no longer has the necessary duration capability. The balloon lands in Thailand setting a new duration record of 233 hours, 55 minutes.
16. Solo Spirit, August 7, 1998, Mendoza, Argentina. Fossett takes off for the fourth time and first southern hemisphere flight. An early fuel problem causes an onboard fire. Fossett is able to continue. Meteorologist Bob Rice threads the balloon through a needle over the Indian Ocean. Fossett crosses Australia in record time and looks to be on his way. There is concern over his remaining oxygen supply, but the flight comes to a watery end when the balloon can not climb over a thunderstorm. Pulled down into it the envelope is ripped and Fossett makes a hard water landing. Rescued he has filed a claim for a new distance record of 22,975 kilometer (~14,267 miles) and joined the Richard Branson-Per Lindstrand ICO Global Challenge team.
Those that tried to launch:
1. S.H.A.R.E., March 1988. John Petrehn and Towland Smith to launch from Mendoza, Argentina using a double helium balloon attached above a hot air balloon envelope. One of the helium balloons is torn during inflation.
2. Earthwinds, February 21, 1992. Larry Newman's figure eight looking helium/ballast balloon is inflated and rolled out of a blimp hangar in Akron, Ohio. Winds off of Lake Erie cause the launch to be scrubbed. Co-pilots were Richard Branson and Vladimir Dzhanibekov.
3. Earthwinds, November 5, 1993, Stead Airfield. During inflation one of four anchor bolts holding the system to the ground breaks loose causing equipment damage.
Others of note:
1. In the 1980's Julian Nott planned to make an attempt using a superpressure balloonEndeavour. Later he opted for a Roziere balloon. To date he has not raised sufficient funds to make an attempt. While out of the picture for now he may be back.
2. Joe Kittinger spent much of his time in the Hanoi Hilton, as a prisoner of war, dreaming of making a solo around-the-world flight in a gas balloon. Kittinger has been involved in high altitude balloon research projects and numerous gas balloon achievements. The most notable is making the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by balloon.