Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, began their Pacific crossing by hot air balloon on 15th January. Two days later they landed in Yellowknife, Canada on 17th January 1991. They had achieved the first Pacific crossing by hot air balloon.
Paul Kipfer and August Piccard prepare to enter the stratosphere in a pressurized gondola lifted by a hydrogen filled balloon on May 27th, 1931.1
In 1930, an interest in ballooning, and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola that would allow ascent to great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Piccard constructed his gondola.
An important motivation for his research in the upper atmosphere were measurements of cosmic radiation, which were supposed to give experimental evidence for the theories of Albert Einstein, whom Piccard knew from the Solvay conferences and who was a fellow alumnus of ETH.
Auguste Piccard in 1932
On 27 May 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer took off from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a record altitude of 15,781 m (51,775 ft). (FAI Record File Number 10634) During this flight, Piccard was able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere, as well as measure cosmic rays. On 18 August 1932, launched from Dübendorf, Switzerland, Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,201 m (53,153 ft). (FAI Record File Number 6590) He ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights, setting a final record of 23,000 m (75,459 ft)
The participants of International Sport Competition of Hot Air Balloons “Sky Fair – 2013” – which was FAI Sporting Event – made a special flight after the contest program. We travelled from Kungur (host city, Perm region) to near Pervouralsk (satellite city of Yekaterinburg) at evening 5th July 2013. There is monument with a huge column which shows the border of Europe and Asia (56.870553, 60.047951). Twenty-two balloons are arrived to the meeting point. The distance is 250 km between Kungur and Pervouralsk which is not so much but the journey was hard because the Russian bus and roads. We had a good lunch and some rest. The organisers provided a nice folklore show too.
Folklore show at border of Europe and Asia
Some balloons are prepared to take-off close to the monument and the rests are moved to a nearby glade after the briefing in the Asian side. We didn’t plan long flight because huge forests, big lakes and few glades were in the flying area. The destination was only crossing the border of the two continents which was successful.
Briefing before the flight
Launch from Asia
We recorded and scored the flights with same tools as the competition flights. The officials of the FAI Sporting Event checked the tracks of GPS loggers after the flights. One pilot turned on the GPS logger during the flight. We can’t record his take-off position but that was the first documented Event were many hot air balloons flight over the Europe – Asia border. The organiser will apply for the approval of Guinness Record.
The green line is the border of Europe and Asia. The tracks of the balloons are red.
Asia Europe flight. We started at first and we flew southernmost.
Balloon Adventures UAE in collaboration with Skydive Dubai officially broke two of the Guinness World Records. The first record broken was for the most skydivers to parachute from a balloon during the same flight is 40, achieved by Skydive Dubai, on the 10th of February 2013. The second record broken was for the most skydivers to parachute from a balloon simultaneously is 25, also achieved by Skydive Dubai, at the same day.
“We had no idea what will happen on the balloon, the balloon may be distorted, it may rock, we had no idea when the balloon will stabilize” said Raul Bocanegra, Skydive Dubai Desert Campus Manager.
The idea came to life when Mike Howard afrom Skydive Dubai suggested joining forces with Balloon Adventures UAE and use one of their big hot air balloons.
“It took us two weeks planning and preparing all the scenarios that might happen and our reaction to it, we needed the weather to be perfect to proceed,” explained Mike Howard Skydive Dubai Air Balloon Pilot.
The event took place in The Skydive Dubai Desert Campus Drop Zone, located in Mergam, 35 km away from Dubai city. One of the main problems that was faced was trying to find the skydivers when they landed, since there were 40 skydivers jumping they all had to land in different places to avoid any accidents. The Balloon Adventures pilot Peter Kollar (HUN) who was the main pilot of the balloon was also trained on parachute emergency and safety procedures for extra precautions.
“All records are meant to be broken” stated Bocanegra. All in all the whole process went well, two major world records were officially broken and the event proved to be an ultimate success.
Flight details:
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD BALLOON JUMP 2013 from Skydive Dubai on Vimeo.
Exclusive photos:
Guinness recorders before take off
8.000 ft
Second Guinness record 25 Skydivers jump simultaneously
Last jump by Mike Howard (GBR), hot air balloon pilot too
Maximum altitude 11.129 ft (3.392 m), Péter Kollár already alone
Péter Kollár the captain of Guinness Recorders hot air balloon just before landing
