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THE GREAT NON-STOP AROUND THE WORLD BALLOON RACE
Chapter Ten - November 25, 1998 Richard Branson, Steve Fossett, and Per Lindstrand are all shrewd businessmen in addition to being adventurous souls who love ballooning. When ICO Global Communications came along and said we want to instantly gain worldwide name recognition by riding along to the tune of $5 Million bucks they said, "Why not?" The Virgin Global Challenger became the ICO Global Challenge balloon. A casualty of this deal was everybody's favorite, the Virgin Global Challenger website. Overnight it became an archive of past attempts and splendid reporting. Detailed information about last season's Virgin Global Challenger balloon's design, crew, equipment, problems, etcetera are contained there and in prior Chapters of ARMCHAIR ADVENTURES ©. This season's activities are in their new, well done ICO Global website, listed below. The South African entry, the Global Conqueror, has again updated their website to make it easier reading for the English speaking community. It is listed below and well worth another visit. If you have about 3 million dollars you'd like to exchange for worldwide name recognition, contact Geritt Coetzee. They are looking for a principal sponsor, The Breitling Orbiter 3 has just posted an attractive new website showing a two-man team of Bertrand Piccard and Tony Brown. It can be viewed in either English or French. They will switch from kerosene to propane as fuel for their Rozier type balloon this time. This year's Breitling contest offers 5 "Pilot's Licenses" for the correct or closest guesses to 5 questions about the upcoming flight. Look for a liftoff from Chateau d' Oex, Switzerland anytime from November 28th until mid-February. The new "World Quest" balloon, with pilots Dick Rutan and Dave Melton, plans to liftoff from the Southern Hemisphere in or near Santiago, Chile sometime in July or August 1999, weather permitting. Their new, pressurized crew capsule is extremely light weight (6,000 pounds, ready to go) without the fuel required for a Rozier type balloon and has four pure helium, super pressure envelopes, fastened together. Their effort is a highly engineered distillation of modern gas ballooning ideas. One such un-manned balloon flew around the world many times in 700+ days aloft. Call Dick or Dave if you would like to be a principal sponsor. According to their literature they only need about a half-million to meet their goal. A substantial part of their expense is still being met by Barron Hilton and Pepsi-Cola. They have a new idea where you may become a member of the Team by helping with as little as Ten Dollars. Read all about it on their website, listed below The Cable & Wireless Balloon with Andy Elson and Colin Prescot will launch from Almeria, Spain soon, weather permitting. Andy manufactured the capsule to include everything he has learned and developed in the years he compiled over 4,000 hours in balloons. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they make it. Cable & Wireless add new features to the website, listed below, all the time, so check it frequently. Some of the most attractive features of the site are artist's depictions of the world and the jet streams designed by A & G Computers who were developing a website for the balloon before Cable & Wireless took over with their own personnel. Kevin Uliassi is poised, ready to liftoff in the J. Renee balloon from the Nimtz Quarry in Loves Park, Illinois. After his bad luck last year he has a new balloon envelope with light-weight laminated fabric designed to be tear resistant and less porous to prevent helium loss. His is the only remaining solo effort announced for this season. The count down has begun and he awaits a favorable meteorological window. My wife, Marie, & I plan to be there to observe the launch as we did last year. Kevin is a top-notch hot air balloonist lacking the years of experience of some of his competitors but makes up for it in spirit and desire to succeed. His physical condition is superb and he is acclimatizing himself by spending much of his time and sleeping in a simulated high altitude chamber prior to takeoff. His tiny capsule is of his own design and is not pressurized. Team RE/MAX has three "old pros" sitting back watching the rest get ready. They have a concept that has been proven highly successful in going around the world in unmanned flight from their point of liftoff in Alice Springs, Australia. They will probably succeed barring equipment failure or undreamed natural disruption. Bob Martin, John Wallington and Dave Liniger must wait for a precise meteorological window which opens in December. How can they stand it! The Spirit of Peace balloon crew maintains an active website which recently posted some fascinating weather data about the effects of El Nino and La Nina on the winds aloft. Their balloon was delivered last week to their liftoff site in Los Rancheros de Albuquerque, New Mexico by a giant Russian built jet transport plane and they are almost ready to go. Watch this one closely. Our prayers for a safe and successful journey ride with each and every one. We are still watching several "new" lighter-than-air technologies which are being or have been developed. One is highly promising but still requires "seed money" to come to fruition. Another has been successfully tested but been unable to secure a sponsor. Just click on the Index of addresses to go take a look. All are interesting and informative. Bookmark ARMCHAIR so you can check back with a single click to keep in touch with new events in this great adventure! |