BalloonLife,August1999

14

This past June BalloonLifeeditor,
Tom Hamilton, had the opportunity to sit
down with Brian Jones, who with Ber-
trand Piccard made the first non-stop
balloon flight around the world, to hear
his first hand account of this mile-
stone accomplishment in avia-
tion. Following is part of our
conversation.

Balloon Life:How didyoube-
comeinvolvedwithBertrand
Piccard’sprojecttoflyaround-
the-world in a balloon?
BrianJones:Iwasworkingas
partoftheBreitlingOrbiter2
team and I was part of the recov-
ery team in Burma when Orbiter
2landed.InMarch1998Iwas
hiredtobe theprojectmanager
forOrbiter3.Atthatpointwe
prettymuchhadtostartfrom
scratch.Noonehadcollected
any data from thefirst two flights.
Andy [Elson] had been in charge
ofdesigning the previous system
and he had left to make his own
attempt. Also we were changing
fuelfromkerosenetopropane
andneededtoredesignallthe
equipment.
When Orbiter 2 landed Ber-
trandgot out and told me, “I am
making threepromises, if Ibreak
anyof themyouremindme.One,I will
not fly with Andy Elson again. Two, I will
notfly with Wim Verstraeten again.Three,
I willnot fly withkerosene again.”

BL:Whatwere your thoughtswhenthe
meteorologyteamcalledyoubackto
Chateaud’Oex?
BJ:I thought there wasno way. We had

packed up and were on our way home
when the call came in. We had already
scheduled a press conference for March 8
to announce that we would not try again
until next winter.

no, we won’t go. The metteamfeltvery
stronglythatthe weatherpatternsetting
upwouldcarryusaround.Therewasa
meeting with the met men, the team from
theCameronfactory, Bertrandandmy-
self. Bertrand and I did not speak
but allowedthe others to debate
theprosandcons.Intheend,
withusparticipating,thevote
wasunanimous to launch.

BL:Atwhatpointdidyoufi-
nally believethat theflight would
succeed?
BJ:At no point during the flight,
until theOrbiterreached the mid-
Atlantic did I think we were go-
ingto make it.

BL:What was daily life aboard
Orbiter 3 like?
BJ:Forthe firstthreedayswe
had freshfood. After three days
wethrewallthefreshfoodre-
maining away. From then on we
hadprepackagedfoodthatwas
speciallypreparedforusb y
Nestle. The food was in bags that
they boiled. It took 28 minutes to
boil water. So, it took a while for
the food to be ready.
Inthebeginningwehad
eight hour shifts. Each would be
awake for 16 hours and sleep for
8.Thus,8hoursbysomeonewasby
themselves and 8 hours we were together.
Towards the end of the trip the dutytime
wasgenerallyonetotwohoursbecause
we weresotired.Wehadanagreement
that ifthe oneon duty was so tired we were
towake the other torelive them. On one
occasionittooka lotof effortforme to
wake Bertrand. I apologized to him, but I

Around the World with
Breitling

An Interview with Brian Jones

by Tom Hamilton

Breitling had told us that theywould
notpayforaBreitlingOrbiter4.They
wouldseeOrbiter3through.Basically,
wewouldgetoneheliumfill,beitthe
1998-99 season or the 1999-2000 season,
or later dependingon the weather.
Neither Bertrand or myself believed
that a flight thatlate inthe seasonwould
be possible. Neither werewillingtosay

Brian Jones accepting the Balleroy Cup on beh alf o f the
Breitling Orbiter 3 team. The cup was presented by Bob
Forbes (left) during the 19th Balleroy Balloon meet in France.

BalloonLife,August1999

16

just couldn’t stayawake.

BL:Whatwasthehardestpartofthe
flight?
BJ:Perhaps the hardest part was going 15
knotsacross the Pacific to reachthe sub-
tropicaljet stream.
Over the Gulf of Mexico the balloon
started turning south towards Venezuela.
Once again, it did not look like we would
beabletocompletetheflight.Themet
teamtoldustoclimbto31,000feet.
Bertrand flew the balloon up very slowly
watching the inflation tube. As the helium
expandedandcamedowntheinflation
tubehewouldholdthealtitudehehad.
Using this as an instrument, Bertrand kept
the helium level at about 3-4 feet from the
bottom of the opening. We did not want to
lose any helium. Not until the last 300 feet
of altitude didtheballoonbegintoturn
back to the east—25 degrees of turn. Ber-
trandexpertlytookthe balloonto itsser-
vice ceiling.

BL:When you landed in Egypt howmuch
fueldidyou have left?
BJ:The preflight computer modelsindi-
catedthatwewouldhave19.7daysof
fuel. We flew 19.8daysandlandedwith
three liters ( lessthan one gallon) of fuel
left. It is possible that we would have had
alongerfuel range if it had not been for all
the ice we were carrying. After the flight
I calculated that just a 1 mil layer of ice on
the envelope would add tons of weight.

BL:Howmuchoftheequipmentwas
recovered?
BJ:Many people have seen the picture of

Orbiter 3 standing on the Egyptian desert
soon after we landed. A short time later
the wind started to blow. As the envelope
was trashing about on the ground Ber-
trand and I were using knives to slash the
envelope and try and allow the helium to
escape. The envelope would not have
been reusable anyway. The helium cell
was left in the desert. Some unknown
quantity of the silver fabric was saved and
is in the hands of Breitling.

covers that didnot make the flight. They
have been burned.

BL:Will there be any other mementos or
commemoratives issuedtocelebrate the
flight?
BJ:Breitling has turned down everyap-
proachtolicensecommemorativeitems
relatedtothe flight.Infacttheyarenot
even using thesuccess of the flight in their
own marketing. Even Bertrand and I have
not beenallowed, save for the flight cov-
ers, to market anycommemorative prod-
ucts. IdidtakeaBritishAirwaysteddy
bear with me that will be auctioned off to
raise moneyfor a charity in the future.
Iamworkingonabookaboutthe
flight that may be out as early as the end of
this year.

BL: What are your plans for the future?
BJ: In the near term I hope to make a
living on the lecture circuit. I have signed
on with the Washington Speakers Bureau
who have told me that I shouldbe able to
get 40-50 speaking engagements a year at
$10,000 each. So far I have one.

BL:Whatwillbehappeningwiththe
AnheuserBuschmilliondollar prize for
being the firstaroundin a balloon?
BJ:Irrespective of what you have read in
thepressandmayhaveseenattheNa-
tional Air and Space Museum, the money
hasnotyetbeenpaid(asoftheendof
June) byAnheuser Busch. $800,000 will
go into a trust for charitable giving. Sev-
eral people including Breitling, Bertrand,
andmyselfwilloverseethecharitable
giving.

At no point during
the flight, until the
Orbiter reached the
mid-Atlantic did I
think we were going
to make it.

On landing the Egyptian army was
guarding the equipment. They pillaged it.
Bertrand and I had carried 600 flight cov-
ers with us on the trip. TheEgyptians stole
350 of the flight covers. The remaining
250 have been affixed with a stamp and
postmarked out of Chateau d’Oex on the
day of launch. There is no back stamp for
the landing becausetherewasn’t any place
to have them cancelled in the desert. These
covers will be sold by a Swiss dealer at an
estimated $1500 each. Perhaps sometime
in July. There were an additional 300