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THE GREAT NON-STOP AROUND THE WORLD BALLOON RACE
Chapter Fifteen - April 7, 1999 It's all over but the shouting ... and there's lots of that. The Breitling Orbiter 3 piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones successfully completed the non-stop circumnavigation of the earth in 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes on March 21st, 1999. They had traveled 46,759 kilometers or 29.054.6 meandering miles at an average speed of 97 km/h or 60.27 mph. In previous Chapters we had followed the adventures of each entrant and grown in understanding that each had its own special motivation for an attempt. Some had been involved out of pure desire to be the first because the challenge was there and trying to win is a great adventure. Others strictly because of the prize money and subsequent earning power. And others to promote a cause or a business enterprise. Most have been straightforward with the media and the public. Some have not. Doctor Bertrand Piccard carries a famous surname with father, uncle and grandfather world record holders and even a cousin who was first to fly a balloon across the English Channel. The Swiss psychiatrist was joined in this endeavor by Brian Jones, a British Aeronautical Engineer. He's an English Naval Officer with thousands of hours in the air who flies for the sheer joy of it and a friend of Dr. Piccard's. This pair have about as pure motivations as one might hope for. In Chapter Thirteen we repeated a previously published rumor that Bob Martin had been "forced out" of a seat aboard the Team RE/MAX balloon. We have been assured by a member of his family that his withdrawal was purely voluntary and prompted by his judgement of what was best for his concept to succeed. We departed from our own rules because of our dislike of the RE/MAX "hard sell" on the website and now apologize for having departed from reporting only the facts. A former member of the team still maintains Bob got the shaft but is afraid that adverse publicity will ruin the image of the technology he was trying to promote so is keeping his mouth shut. Mr. Liniger has contributed big money for the right to offer his version of the facts about the aborted flight and is entitled to do so. We are still of the opinion that distortion of the truth by deliberate omission of pertinent information is deceptive & counter-productive to the flight and its advertising mission. A friendly, smart Harvard Ph.D., Douglass White, who formerly worked in our space program wrote some time ago that his version of quantum physics and application of modern materials & methods showed him that old objections to utilizing vacuum technology for lighter than air aircraft use are no longer valid. He is now putting everything together and will prepare a RTW entry when he is ready. He is not a balloonist and needs experienced guidance. Breitling Orbiter 3 won partially because they had Chinese overflight permission. In all of the excitement of the launch almost everyone overlooked the fact that said permit expired at the end of February. Pilots Piccard and Jones had signed a covenant at the Chinese embassy in Berne, Switzerland in order to secure it. The Chinese extended the authorization immediately when requested. Details are on Breitling's website and that of the Virgin Global Challenger. This did not solve the overflight objections of several other countries, however, and was characterized as being little better than none at all. They launched March 1st and began a slow journey down North Africa in the wrong direction to a point where they could pick up a jet stream and turn toward Southern Asia. Things went pretty well except they moved slower than expected. Fuel consumption was less than anticipated. They experienced some severe icing conditions which necessitated coming down to about six thousand feet to melt it off several times. Each time dropping out of the jet stream and risking losing the track, further slowing the journey. Several times they had to zigzag around thunderstorms because it would throw them off track to fly over them. Meanwhile, things were pretty much the same as before with the other teams at the ready or nearly ready to go stage except for the Global Conqueror, Kevin Uliassi in the J. Renee and the World Quest which were still working on their funding. No word from Dick Rutan and Dave Melton about World Quests efforts since before Christmas 'til just before the Breitling crew walked away with the money. They have since sent a message of congratulations. The silence was deafening for a few months! The Global Conqueror's website went down again for a rebuild and is back up again with what would have been an exciting announcement about self-funding if the Breitling Orbiter 3 had not already won. Any Southern Hemisphere balloon is unconcerned about China or other political problems as they could fly over as many as19 friendly countries on their Southern Hemisphere routes. Belgian adventurer & balloonist, Fons Oerlemans, 60, had announced that he and a Dutch airline stewardess, Mariette Sonneveldt, 29, would try for a new balloon altitude record and a RTW trip this spring. She was picked from hundreds who answered his ad for a young female companion to share a thrilling adventure. They would launch from Mexico or Mauritania this spring. No name has been given to the venture and it has no website yet. The whole thing is being taken with a grain of salt by many serious balloonists who say his figures don't add up right. Others caution that his unconventional low-tech methods have paid off for him in other adventures in the past such as crossing the Atlantic on a raft and in a truck. Other Northern Hemisphere balloons had to consider avoidance of Russian, Iraqi, Iranian, and Chinese airspace as well as meteorological factors. China seems to have legitimate concerns in that their voice air traffic control system does not have modern radar to prevent midair collisions in their busy airspace. Many of their flight controllers speak nothing but Chinese so that even if a balloon reported its position accurately and frequently they could not understand. Some old China hands say this is hogwash and they are just over-concerned with security. One pilot says that all totalitarian countries have a deep distrust of anything they can't control and says, "Why don't they just turn off the wind over their countries? Then they wouldn't have to worry about it." A very profound question indeed. Richard Branson, Steve Fossett, and Per Lindstrand were researching South America, South Africa, and the Australian area for a spring launch site when the Breitling balloon won. All have congratulated Piccard and Jones. I read an early report from Tasmania that said it might be under consideration for a launch around the end of May. Strangely enough there was no mention of ICO in those early dispatches. Perhaps it's just little premature to fire up the publicity machine but we have no announced challenger or website pegged as yet. Richard has talked about creating a possible "Virgin Cup" with a multi-million dollar prize. Federation Aeronautique Internationale has announced planning for a RTW competition every 4 years with a traveling trophy and a Million Dollar plus prize beginning in Y2K. The weather has not been good for the teams that are ready to go. Some meteorologists are saying that predictability is down to two days and that isn't enough for a safe trip. The Cable and Wireless balloon with Andy Elson and Colin Prescot successfully avoided China by attempting a more Southerly Route. They started a 72 Hour countdown to launch, Sunday, 14 February at 11:55:09 GMT, but didn't get it in the air until Wednesday, February 17. They faced serious trouble if an ill wind accidentally blew them towards Chinese air space! They succeeded in bypassing China and had a fly by with a Hong Kong bound 747 but were later defeated on Sunday, March 7th by Mother Nature about 50 miles Southeast of Japan when the balloon slowed down to about 7 mph in the face of thunderstorms. The ditched balloon was lost at sea after the pilots were plucked from the water in less than one minute by the Japanese Navy's Search and Rescue forces who were standing by when they hit the ocean. They had traveled 12,257 miles or 19,726 kilometers in 17 days 18 hours and 25 minutes which is 41% of the earth's circumference. So far the needed jet stream has disappeared from over Uliassi's launch position. On the J.Renee website, Kevin Uliassi has announced that he doesn't think the combination of poor jet stream patterns and political posturing will allow him a RTW flight from Loves Park, Illinois this season. He is thinking in terms of a Southern Hemisphere flight where politics will not enter into it at all. A successful solo flight which with good media management might attract as much or more attention as the multi-pilot winners. A single, cryptic announcement about a Kray America Global Balloon Team was released on Friday 12 March. It was supposed to launch the following day but was never heard from again. A hoax? On March 14th the Breitling balloon was over halfway around the globe but still going slowly near Hawaii after 13+ days. Again they had to reduce altitude and take a zigzag course to avoid thunderstorms. They had surpassed Fossett's distance record by 1418 GMT on the 15th of March, having gone 24,386 km and becoming one day younger as they crossed the international date line. The Spirit of Peace team has reluctantly decided to stand down for the season. Jacques Soukup, Crispin Williams, and Mark Sullivan with the approval of their sponsors and support group have decided that discretion is the better part of valor. The combination of the disturbing influence of La Nina, normal seasonal end of the Northern Hemisphere's favorable unbroken jet stream plus the political problems offer too great a danger to the safety of the balloon and crew. Future plans under consideration are a possible shift to a Southern Hemisphere route this summer or simply wait for things to change along their originally planned route next winter. Their nine months standby has been in vain. Will there be any further activity? We will post daily bulletins and updates when there's action. Our friends in each team all hope it may be sometime soon! Stay with us and join the excitement. It's far from over. The first chapter of ARMCHAIR ADVENTURES (C) was published here on April 24th, 1998. By April 24, 1999 over 24,000 hits will have been registered. We want to thank each of you for your support and Mark Brooks for publishing it. It's been great fun for Marie and I. It's wonderful to be a part of an activity that generates so much international goodwill. We thrive on your support. Drop us a line. We love you all. Click on the Index of addresses to go take a look. All of the team sites 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! |