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THE GREAT NON-STOP AROUND THE WORLD BALLOON RACE
Chapter Two - May 10, 1998 It is a real challenge for a meteorological team to estimate the altitude where a wind might be found blowing hard in the direction a balloon wishes to travel. Gentle breezes won't do! Speed is as essential as direction. Their fuel is limited. It's an equal challenge for the balloon pilot to maintain, raise or lower altitude by dumping ballast or empty fuel tanks, firing the burners, and overcoming rising or falling inertia. He will be assisted by an on-board computer. When do they recommend rising or descending? It's the only way he can keep going in the right direction. The wind pushes the balloon where it will. Modern meteorology has discovered that the "jet stream", a high altitude, high speed wind used by airplanes to assist them in long distance travel, has fairly predictable patterns during certain times of the year, but becomes unpredictable the rest of the time. Airplanes can fly from one pattern of wind to another, varying their altitude and position with ease to keep a "tail wind." This is not true of balloons who have no motor, propeller or means of directional control. They must connect with another wind pattern before the one they are using gives out. The jet streams are shaped like a pancake, wide and thin. Often just a few thousand feet thick but miles wide and long. The balloon pilot must be highly skilled to stay within them. The liftoff point must be in a protected area to avoid problems with surface winds. Radio communication with military and civil aviation authorities is necessary to prevent mid-air collisions with airplanes in the vicinity. Landing is by chance and always dangerous. Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser Beer, has offered a Million Dollar prize to the first balloon to circumnavigate the world non-stop before the turn of the Century. Details can be found in several of the balloon team websites listed below. Since it is almost impossible to get back to the exact point of the liftoff, a balloon that lands on or beyond the same degree of longitude but within a broad range of latitudes will be the winner and holder of the only remaining record unachieved in modern aviation. What an adventure! Nigel Penn-Smith, reporter on the Virgin Challenger website has asked, "Why would normally sane men undertake such a dangerous quest?" It's not the prize money. The endeavor often costs more than the prize. The answer, of course, is because it has not been done. It's like climbing Mt. Everest because it's there. How would you like to be the first to do it? The Solo Spirit manned by millionaire commodities trader Steve Fossett, took off News Year Eve and ended in Southern Russia, 6+ days and over 7,300 miles from his liftoff at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. A flaky burner & a failed cabin heater negated the full trip. He was low on fuel & oxygen. Hallucinating and half frozen, he decided to quit while he was still able to land the balloon. He stated to an audience in Stamford, Connecticut, April 25th, where he received the "Pilot of the Year" award from the International Order of Characters, a group of aviation dignitaries, that he will try again in August of this year but use a different route and equipment. His "mission control" will remain at Washington University of St. Louis. From a lift off in Argentina he will fly over Paraguay and Brazil to cross the Atlantic to South Africa and on to Australia before going over the Pacific back to the Americas. Steve and his meteorological team are anticipating more favorable conditions using this Southern route which is 80% over water. It also avoids the necessity of flying over some countries who have been reluctant or tardy in giving permission to overfly. Where his previous route took him over 95 countries the new one is only over 5. This is a route pioneered by NASA unmanned weather balloons launched from Australia but at lower altitudes than they normally use. He stated he will use a much larger balloon envelope and a beefed up capsule capable of carrying twice the fuel as on his earlier attempts. The gondola will have a new, specially designed cabin heater and will be heavily insulated. It will be a lower altitude flight than that planned by the Dymocks Flyer although the balloon envelopes sound similar. He further said the "jet streams" in the Southern Hemisphere are a bit slower, but, hopefully, more reliable than those on his previously Northern route. We will bring you an up-to-date synopsis of his plans as he releases further information. Send him an e-mail message of encouragement at his address below. The English team in Marrakech, Morocco is the Virgin Global Challenger with pilots Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Rory McCarthy. They tried last year with flight engineer Alex Ritchie, who designed their capsule, in place of Rory McCarthy. When equipment failure caused the balloon to hurtle toward the ground, Alex climbed out of the capsule in mid-air to allow release of spent fuel tanks which lightened the load enough to prevent an almost certainly fatal crash and saved their lives. On January 20th of this year Alex's parachute failed to open during a practice jump. He survived the fall but was critically injured. He died in a London hospital on April 11th. Send an e-mail sympathy message to their address listed below. It's tough to lose a heroic comrade. Following the balloonist's efforts on the Internet is an exciting ARMCHAIR ADVENTURE © which we will continue. You can join in the fun. The websites are listed in the Index. |