Balloonists make history by surpassing world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon after crossing Pacific Ocean
|
Version 0 of 1. Two pilots have surpassed the world distance record for a flight in a helium balloon after soaring across the Pacific Ocean and travelling farther than the 5,209 mile marker, but the pair are hoping to set a new record for duration before landing. American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev left Japan in their balloon on Sunday and had been aiming for Canada until a high-pressure ridge formed on the West Coast of the US, causing the pair to turn towards Mexico, where they are thought to be aiming for the peninsula of Baja, California, and plan to land on Saturday. The pair are aiming to set both distance and duration records in their Two Eagles balloon, but in order to do so they need to exceed the current records by one per cent, according to international aviation rules. Another great photo from 15,000 feet, near Midway. Follow the flight of #TwoEagles http://t.co/HN2WwQD4ia pic.twitter.com/rhfJI01MYC To officially break the record, Bradley and Tiukhtyaev need to beat the 5,260 mile-distance set by the Double Eagle V in 1981. The current duration record was set in 1978 when Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman made the first transatlantic balloon flight at a total time of 137 hours, five minutes and 50 seconds – considered the “holy grail” of ballooning accomplishments. The Two Eagles team will need to stay in the air for around 138 hours and 45 minutes to beat it. “We’re not taking any time to celebrate,” said Steve Shope, head of mission control. “We have a lot of work to do and we’re just taking this flight one hour at a time.” The pilots are flying in a hi-tech balloon fitted with an array of monitors and other instruments designed to keep track of their course and to accurately compile their flight data to be submitted to record-keepers. Their capsule sits beneath a massive, helium-filled envelope and a specially-designed carbon fiber-composite capsule, which is built especially to be able to stay aloft for 10 days. Tami Bradley hugs her daughter, Savannah, moments after watching her pilot husband surpass the gas ballooning distance record Despite their goal of beating the current distance and endurance records, the next real challenge for the Two Eagles team will be a safe landing; as there is no certainty about their final destination, the team had already set up a network of balloonists across the U.S. and southern Canada to serve as chase crews, who able to travel as much as 200 miles to tether the capsule and round up the balloon's envelope as it deflates. But the balloon’s landing destination depends on the winds encountered along the way – if the team is blown beyond the Baja peninsula to somewhere else in Mexico, it is not yet clear if they will be able to land in a place where a ground team can help them. Additional reporting by AP |