BalloonLife,April 1999

12

InLe Tour du Monde en quatre-vingt
tours(Around the World in 80 Days) Jules
Verne had Phileas Fogg travel the around
the world in 1783. Fogg used every method
oftransportationavailabletohim.The
part that people remember the most is the
balloonsegment.And,itdidn’twork,
they went backwards.
Duringthelasttwodecadesaero-
nauts have dreamedandtriedto circum-
navigatetheglobenon-stopinballoon.
Like Fogg, all have been unsuccessful in
making itwork.UnsuccessfuluntilBer-
trandPiccard andBrian Jones, flying the
Breitling Orbiter 3, proved that it could be
done. Andwhata flight!
At 08:05 GMT(9:05 a.m.local time),
March 1, the Breitling Orbiter 3 lifted off
fromChâteaud’Oex,Switzerland.This
third attempt, in as many years, was made
ina radicallychangedsystem.The first
twoBreitlingattemptsusedkerosene as
the primary fuel source. The initial flight
inJanuary1997failedsoonafter liftoff
whena50centO-ringfailed,releasing
fumes into the capsule. Last year’s record
setting duration flight showed that the use
ofkerosenewasmuchhigherthanex-
pected. The decision was made to change
to propane as the fuel source, even though
it meant that the balloon system would be
heavier.
Laboratorysimulationsof tempera-
ture variations enabled the team to deter-
mine that, although theinitial shape ofthe
balloon was fundamentally correct, slight
modifications wouldmakeitpossibleto
significantly improve efficiency.
The totalvolume of the heliumcell
for this flight was 650,000 cubic feet. The
envelopewasalsoreinforced—without
adding weight—and the “tent” which in-
sulatesthepeakwasalsoenlargedto
diminish the effect of solar radiation.
Akey change was the size of the cone
for hot air being reduced. This provided a
smaller cavitytoheat,meaningless pro-
pane would have to be used.

Any attempttofly aroundthe world
byballoonhastoovercomefourmajor
obstacles—weather, equipment, psycho-
logical/physical, andpolitical.
ThemaincriticismoftheBreitling
attempt was their takeoff location. One of
the primary theories was that you needed
to select a takeoff point underneath the jet
streamsothatyoucouldinjectyourself
intoitveryquickly.Forgetthattheory,
Breitling flew backwards, westward, and
south,for days working their wayto the
jet stream forming overnorthern Africa—
the same jet stream that ICO Global posi-
tioned themselves directly under.
Just getting to the jet stream was only
part ofthe objective. They had to get to the
southern edge of the jet stream. Why? For
political considerations. The middle east
isaveryunstableareaandoverflight
permissionwasnotgrantedbyIraqor
Iran. Then the Chinese factor, the balloon
couldonlyflysouthofthe26parallel.
This addsseveral days tothe flight.
Inorder toride the Pacific jeta bal-
loonhastopositionitselfoverJapan.
GenerallythejetdevelopsovertheTi-
betanPlateau.Read,youhavetofly
through central China to take best advan-
tageofthejetstream.Or,youhaveto
figure out how to maneuver around China
andworknorthatalowlevel.Cable&
Wireless made avalianttry but theweather
didn’t hold up.
Ridingthesouthernedgeofthejet
streamfromnorthAfrica,asbothC&W
andBreitlingdid,doesnotpositionthe
balloon well for crossing the Pacific. Dur-
ing late February to mid-March when both
teams weremaking theirattempts,thesouth-
ernedgeofthejetturnedsouthintothe
Pacific. For Cable & Wireless they had no
choice but to try and work their way north
intothemiddleornorthernpartofthe
Pacific jet. There was a major low pressure
trough that would have stopped them dead
in the air otherwise.
Trying to forecast the jet stream more

than twodays at a time isa crap shoot at
best. As Breitlingworked its wayacross
India and then Southeast Asia the block-
ing low pressure in the mid-Pacific dissi-
pated. Inits place there was a slow upper
level flow of air that allowed the balloon
to make a transition from the Pacific jet to
the Subtropical jet stream forming south-
westoftheHawaiianIslands.Thiswas
theluckinweather thatmade theflight
successful.
Theyweren’toutof thewoodsyet.
ThetransitionacrossCentralAmerica
andintotheCaribbeanrequiredskillful
positioning of the balloon. Teammeteo-
rologists Luc Trullemans and Pierre Eckert
did a superb job of positioning the balloon
throughout theentireflight. They are to be
congratulated for“flying”the balloon and
gettingit home.
OnceintotheAtlantictheballoon
wasabletoconnecttothejetstream
whichwould takethem acrossnorthAf-
rica, the same jet stream thatthey started
their journey on two weeks earlier, to the
finish line of the world circumnavigation
andontoasuccessfullandinginthe
Egyptian desert.
Theequipmentheldupremarkable
well,withonlyafewminorproblems.
One of those “minor” repairstook place
over the Pacific when Jones “persuaded”
a jammed fuel valve to open by hitting it
wit hahammer.“Lay ingalon gthe
outriggerstogettotankvalve14,with
Bertrand holding my foot, was not much
fun,” Brian observed. It was the first time
the pilots opened the hatch in more than a
week.TheBritishpilotaddedthatthe
freshairhadimprovedthe smellinside
the gondola.
Thepilotsthemselvesdidremark-
ablywell,co nsideringthattheywere
lockedawayfor almost three weeksina
relatively small space. Near the end of the
trip Piccard used hypnosis to help relieve
stress.
After 15 days in the air, the Bertrand

Around the World in 20 Days

by Tom Hamilton

BalloonLife,April1999

14

commentedaboutthe way oflifeon board.
“Whenwe spentone dayinthe gondola in
Château d’Oex,we found time terribly
longandboring. Now, we have foundour
pace and could easily stay inside for an-
other week..”Piccardadded, ”Thismorn-
ing, when I woke up and Brian wasready
tosleep, he made me a cup of tea, while I
waspreparinghisbed.Andthisveryspon-
taneously. We realized how our relation-
ship was deep and friendly.”
Once over the Atlantic the balloon
acceleratedtowardthe finishline.At09:54
GMT on March 20, 1999 the Breitling
Orbiter 3 passed over the “finish line”of
9degrees27minuteswestover Mauritania,
North Africa. BertrandPiccard andBrian
Jones had now become the first balloon-
ists to circumnavigatetheglobe,non-
stop,non-refueled. Theflight,tothispoint,
lasted 19 days, 1 hour, and 49 minutes
traveling 42,810 kilometers.

Now it was on toward Egypt, where
Brian had hoped to land near the Pyra-
mids. Winds, unfortunately, didnotallow
thatroute and theteam settledfora perfect
landing Sunday, March 21 in the south-
east of Egypt, at 06:00 GMT (Latitude
26.9N,Longitude 28.21E). Thetotal
time in flight was 19 days, 21 hours, and
55 minutes coveringa distance of 46,759
kilometers (or just over 29,000 miles).
The crew was picked up in the desert
andflownbackto Switzerland wherethey
held apress conferenceatthe Geneva
InternationalAirport. Sincethentheyhave
beenona tourreceivinghonorsandawards
from countries around the world.
In Washington, DCtheyreceivedthe
BudweiserCup fromAnheuserBusch.
During the ceremony at the National Air
and Space Museum itwas announced that
their capsule will betransferred to the
museum thisfalland placedonpermanent

exhibit.
Whatnext?TheFédération
AéronauticInternationalhasformerly
announced a planned “race” around the
worldtentativelyscheduledfor 2002.Don
Cameron isheadingthe committee which
willbe working on the rules and attempt-
ing to raise necessary funding. Two cur-
rentteams,Spirit of PeaceandWorld
Quest have announced that they are con-
sidering entering that race.
Was thisthe “lastgreataviationchal-
lenge?” Certainly it was the latest great
aviationfeat. There are stillsoloflightsto
be made, faster times, and new altitude
records to achieve. Time will tell what
othergreat accomplishments aeronauts
will try in their magnificent flying ma-
chines in the future.
Now itistime for BertrandandBrian
to bask in the glory of being the first to
circumnavigate the globe by balloon.

March 1:
Liftoff at 08:10 GMT
Earlier on in the afternoon, mission
control received an alarming fax from the
Swiss Embassy in Beijing, saying that the
permissiontooverflyChinawasonly
valid until the end of February. The Em-
bassy immediately contacted the Chinese
authorities,whoverykindlyagreedto
immediately extend the authorization.
Team meteorologists predict an eight
day journey to Japan, then a further eight
days tocomplete the circumnavigation.
However, they do point out that the weather
canchangequitedramaticallyover16
days.
The team reported astunning viewof
theMatterhornastheycruisedoutof
SwitzerlandintoItaly.Altitude21,000
feet.

March 2:
Theonly technical problem appeared
to be an over eager flame out protection
device in the pilot light system, which the
crew overcamewithadvicefromengi-
neers on the ground.
Theflightpathpassesoverboth
Almeria, Spain (Cable & Wireless launch
site) and Marrakech, Morocco (ICO Glo-
bal launch site), enroute to joining the jet
stream over Mauritania. They enjoy their
first meal in flight, Emu steak.
Althoughit is too soon to be abso-
lutelyconfident, the balloon’s fuel con-
sumptionappearstobe better thanthe

computer predictions anticipated, giving
a potential flight duration in excess of 20
days. The team meteorologists expect the
balloon to complete the circumnavigation
in 16 days.

March 3:
Bertrand Piccardreports he had an
incredible view of the snowy Atlas moun-
tains by full moon.
Tomorrow, the crew will lowerdown
to 2000 meters to defrost theballoon. ”We
can actually see 3 meters long stalactites,
some of them touching the propane burn-
ers. It’s a wonderful sight,” commented
Piccard. Ice increases the weightof the
Orbiter and therefore the fuel consump-
tion. One of the pilots will climb outside
the gondola to break the icicles with an ice
pick.
The only technical difficulties being
experienced by the team are on theground.
Thecontrol center has had someproblems
in communicating with the balloon via its
Inmarsat satellite data link.

March 4:
The flight path onto the eastern route
is proving slightly slower than expected,
but it has the benefit of moving the craft
further South thanthe originalforecast,
whichwillhelpthe meteorologistsma-
neuver the craft on to a good track to India
and then into the Chinese corridor. Fuel
consumption is lowerthan expected. ”This
time,wereallyhave the impressionof

starting the round-the-world flight,” said
Bertrand Piccard.

March 5:
The balloon enters Libyan airspace.
Laterinthedayitflew intoEgyptian
airspace.
British pilot Jones flew the balloon
for most of Thursday night, while Piccard
was enjoying “a marathon sleep.”

March 6:
Yemen strictly forbids Breitling Or-
biter3 to overfly their military zone, in the
northern part of the country. The balloon
will have to modify its path and climb to
7000 meters, inorder tocatch different
winds. Later they receive permissionto
fly over thenorthern edge ofthe Yemenite
military area.
Thecrewfinished all theirfresh food,
much of whichhadbeen carefully pre-
pared and packaged for them in Château
d’Oex. Bertrand had requested Emu, Brian
went for fillet steak. They also took with
them vegetables and fruit, plus cheese and
bread. From now on they will mainly be
eating dehydrated food prepared with hot
water.
Tomorrow, Breitling Orbiter 3 will
leave momentarily the lower part ofthe jet
streamanddescendonce more to3000
meters or so, in order to melt the 200-300
poundsoficethathasformedonthe
envelope.
Continued on page 16

Highlights of Breitling Orbiter 3

BalloonLife,April1999

16

March 7:
Piccard receives the news that Cable
& Wireless balloon has ditched off the
coast of Japan. Jones is still sleeping and
doesn’t know yet. Piccard is delighted to
know that Andy Elson and ColinPrescot
were rescued safely. ”Wenowhavea
better chance tobe thefirstonestoaccom-
plish the round-the-world flight,” added
Piccard. Flightdirector Alan Noble adds,
“Weather and politics endanger balloon
flights and we have to keep our fingers
crossed.”
Breitling Orbiter 3 is flying slowly
but surely over the Arabian sea at 5000
meters (15,000 feet) at a cruise speed of
approximately30-40 knots(50-70km/h).
Life on board is still calm, but the
pilotsare far from bored, asthey reported
minor electrical problems on one of the
burners. Thisproblem isunthreatening to
the flight. ”Unfortunately, we still didn’t
have the time to concentrate on our pho-
tography yet,”joked Jones. The fuel con-
sumption continues to be better than ex-
pected.
Team meteorologistsare lookingvery
confident. They will guide theballoon
towardsNorthofBombay (India) and
thenaim towardsBhopal (Tuesdaymorn-
ing)and Bhutan. BreitlingOrbiter 3 will
then fly into Bangladesh, whereit will
catch much faster winds in the lower part
ofthe jetstream. The balloonshould enter
Chinese airspace under the 26th parallel
Wednesday evening, after flying briefly
over Burma.

March 8:
Breitling Orbiter 3 has flown more
than 11,500 kilometers since take-off in
Château d’Oex last Monday, is currently
flying over India at 5,600 meters (16,500
feet)ataspeedof approximately40knots.
Once leaving India the balloon willmake
crucial moves to avoid the forbidden part
of China.
Piccardsendshisthoughtstomission
control, a shortexcerpt:“Brianissleeping
and I trytosum upmyfirstimpressionsof
this flight, because what is most impor-
tantto me isto memorize the impressions
of this incredible experience more than
justthe facts themselves. Over the ocean
after 6 days of flying over the desert. I
would rather have to write ”deserts” be-
causein opposition of what I thought,
since each sunrise revealed another mix-
tureof sandandrocks,designsand shapes,
shadesandcolors. Boundlessspaces with-
out any human track....”

March 9:
Big surpriseforagroup fromthe
SwissTourism Office, beingon a promo-
tiontour inIndia, while flyingfrom Delhi
toBengaloreatanaltitudeof8,000meters,

to catch a sight of the balloon. A radio
contact wasestablishedwithBertrand
Piccard, the entire Swissgroup hurried to
thecockpit tosendtheirmessagesof
friendship and encouragement.
BreitlingOrbiter 3isheadingtowards
Burma and China at more than 120 km/h.
The balloon enters Chinese airspace
late at night. Thepilots descend to an
altitude of4500meters,whereslower
winds (35 km/h) will taketheballoon
under the northern part of the jet stream
currentlyforming overthePacific.A
higher track would take the balloon too
South.
After eightdays they have used10 of
the32 propane cylinders, which leavesan
estimated 15 days of fuel remaining.

March 10:
”Too fast.” That was the only com-
plaint teammeteorologists made about
the overnight flight across China. “Too
cloudy.”Thatwastheonlycomplaint
made by the pilots about this transit, as
theywere hopingtoenjoya glimpse ofthe
ground.
BreitlingOrbiter 3leftChinaat11:20
GMT. Itwillfly over Tai-Pei (Taiwan)at
around 1 p.m. GMT.
Having exited Chinese airspace ear-
lierthanexpected, BreitlingOrbiter 3will
havetotakethelongwayacross the
Pacific – a more southerly track towards
Hawaiiand Mexico - insteadof aimingat
Japan, where weather conditionsare very
unfavorable at the moment.“Whatfright-
ens us most about crossing the Pacific is
bad weather in an area where rescue will
belongandpossiblydifficult,”saidJones.
“I’m just hopingwe won’t bump intoany
bad weather.”

March 11:
This morning the Breitling Orbiter 3
passed 1,400 kmnorth ofthe Mariana
Trench, the place in the Pacific where 39
years ago PilotBertrand Piccard’s father,
Jacques, set world record when hede-
scended 10,916 meters below the surface
of the ocean in the bathyscaph to explore
the deepest known spot on earth.
The balloonhasbeenordered toslow
down, in order tocatch in due time one of
thetwo jetstreamscurrentlyformingover
the Pacific.At this stage,fasterwinds
would spoil the favorable easterly direc-
tion taken by the craft.
Afternearly 10 days on board and
morethan20,000kilometers,thetwo
pilots are still getting on perfectly well.
“Bertrand and I are still talking to each
other,” laughs Jones, ”there has not been
a single bad word between us. The only
swearwords were directed at minor tech-
nical problems. The only thing that an-
noysme isthe dehydratedfood. Butif it’s

the only problem, Ithink wecan surviveit.”

March 12:
The two pilots admitted that they are
very impressed by the immense expanse
ofwaterwhichistheironlyscenery.
Shortlybeforedawn,theballoonde-
scended to an altitude of 6,000 feet. It was
the first time after one week that Bertrand
Piccard and Brian Jones opened the hatch
on top of the gondola to taste fresh air and
to undertake some housekeeping chores.
Meteorologists choseto takethe Sub-
tropicaljet stream, which is currently form-
ing around Hawaii. The Breitling Orbiter
3 will fly for the next few days at approxi-
mately 30knots, before entering the jet
stream, Tuesday night. During the night
they will reach the half way point in their
journey.The moresoutherlytrackwill
provide better weather and more reliable
weatherinformation since the routepasses
close to US military bases in the Pacific.
Both SteveFossett and Richard Bran-
son send congratulating messages to Ber-
trand and Brian.

March 13:
The southerly track will take the bal-
loon towards the Hawaiian islands, where
it will meet with theSubtropical jet stream
on Monday and catch winds of more than
200 km/h. So far, BrianJones andBer-
trand Piccard have flown 22,000 kilome-
ters.
Satellite communications have been
difficult, due to the huge size of the bal-
loon envelope, which is obscuring the line
of sight between the antennas on the gon-
dola and the equatorial Inmarsat satellite.
The pilotsare communicatingwithair
traffic control using HF radio.

March 14:
At06:30GMT BreitlingOrbiter3
crosses the International Date Line.
Brian Jones passed a message to his
wife Jo telling her, “Lord knows where I
got it from, but I have a cold. Fortunately
Dr. Piccard has his remedy box and I am
now sipping hot lemon with honey.”
At an altitudeof 9,500 meters (28,500
feet), Breitling Orbiter 3 is progressing at
faster speeds (40-50 knots, 72-90 km/h)
towards the Hawaiian islands, off which
the Subtropical jet stream will push the
balloon towards Mexico and the Carib-
bean at more than 200 km/h.
Theyhadto climbto9,500meters
(31,500feet)tomaneuverbetweena
coupleofthunderstormclouds.These
maneuvers caused a slight southerly de-
viation from the initial track (10 degrees
latitude from Equator).

March 15:
At 12.00 GMT, Breitling Orbiter 3

BalloonLife,April1999

18

entered the mouth of the Subtropical jet
streamSouth ofHawaii, some 600 km
away from the Hawaiian coast, at a speed
of approximately 70 knots.
BreitlingOrbiter 3 beats the existing
distance record of 22,910 km.
Piccard and Jones madetheirlast
EVA (ExternalVehicular Activity).Allis
going so well on board that it took only
two hours – instead of six - to undertake
the necessary verificationsand modifica-
tionsbefore catching the jet stream. This
gain of time enabled the craft to position
itself perfectly for the jet stream.

March 16:
InaninterviewPiccardcomments on
what might endanger the voyage, ”Bad
luck, as always. Now we tell ourselves,
hopefullyour speedwillbe fastenough so
as to reach Europe before we run out of
propane! However, I mustsay that every-
thing is going extremely well, we have
enoughfood,water,clothes to change
into and we are feeling good.”
Currently, the balloonissoutheastof
Hawaii, half way between Hawaii and
Mexico City.The jetstreamsare carrying
them at more than 150 Km/hour.
Bertrand Piccard said he had been
quiteworriedand anxiousduringthecom-
munications black-out ofthe past four
days. ”When we were flying over Africa,
I started to be fond of the desert. But I
realized thatthe worstdesertwasn’tmade
ofsand, butwater. Nothing’smore fearful
than to anticipate problems when every-
thing is going perfectly well on board. I
realizedhow importantitwastoliveinthe
present moment”

March 17:
After 6 days and 16hoursflyingover
the Pacific Ocean, the Breitling Orbiter 3

has reached the coast of Mexico south of
Colima. A number of times, the meteo-
rologistscorrected thetrackof the balloon
because it was veering too far south.
After enteringMexicanairspace, this
morningat02.45 GMT, BreitlingOrbiter
3 has just passedoverGuatemalaand
Belize,at an altitude of 10,500 meters
(34,500 feet) andaspeed ofapproxi-
mately45 knots(81km/h). Itthenheaded
towardsJamaica(Thursdaymorning),
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The
”finishline” in Mauritania (9.27 degrees
West) should be crossed Saturday 18.00
GMT, a littlebit later than expected, due
to the development of the winds.
”We don’t know how this happened,
butthe balloon gotejected [out]of the jet
streammuchearlier than expected and
started to drift in a poor southerly direc-
tion,”commented Belgian meteorologist
Luc Trullemans. It is expected that they
will lose no more than half a day’s time.
Over thenight,the balloonconsumed
more fuel than on previous nights, which
concernedflightdirectorAlanNoble. “We
hope thiswas a one-off problem, possibly
caused by the balloon passing through a
few clouds.If thisisthe case, then we will
still haveenoughfuelto get to North
Africa.” The pilots appeared to beex-
hausted, this afternoon, while talking to
mission control. Temperature inside the
gondola isno more than 8degrees, due to
a probable failure withone of the heaters.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher” com-
mented Bertrand Piccard.

March 18:
HavingpassedoverHaiti and the
DominicanRepublic,thisafternoon,
BreitlingOrbiter 3is heading towardsthe
Africancoast at an altitude of11,000
meters and a speed of 64 knots. It will
progressivelyenter thejetstream overthe

Atlantic.
Pilotsreportedminorbreathingprob-
lems shortly before crossing the Carib-
bean coast. All life support systems on
board showed normal readings, and fol-
lowing medical consultations, they were
advised to take additional oxygen for a
short period using constant flow masks.
After15 minutes ofthis treatment, the
symptomsdisappeared.Bertrandsleptfor
two hours and awoke feeling completely
refreshed. Apparently, the heater system
is working perfectly.
Tension isbuilding in thecontrol
center at Geneva Airport, asstaff realizes
thatthe completionof the firstround-the-
world flightis now more than a possibil-
ity.Everyone hasadopteda policyof “one
day at a time,” when thinking about the
future.

March 19:
The BreitlingOrbiter 3 is now flying
over the Atlantic, with the finishing line
firmly in site.
This morning, the BreitlingOrbiter 3 has
taken the duration record of Andy Elson
and Colin Prescott, of 17 days 18 hours
and 25 minutes.

March 20:
TheBreitlingOrbiter3, at09:54GMT
passed the“finishing line” of 9.27º W
over Mauritania, North Africa, complet-
ing their “round the world balloon trip.”

March 21:
The BreitlingOrbiter 3 makes a per-
fect landing Sunday,March21in the
south-east of Egypt, at 06.00 GMT (Lat.
26.9N / Long. 28.21E).Ithas been flying
for 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes.
The crew is flown back to Switzer-
land, and apressconference takes place at
Geneva International Airport.