September 30, 1906
first Gordon-Bennett Balloon Race
the world's most prestigious balloon race was held in Paris and won by Americans Lt. Frank P. Lahm (1877-1963) and Maj. H. B. Hersey which landed at Searborough, England after travelling 647.98 km.
December 25, 1907
first balloon crossing of the delta mouth of the Rio de la Plata (Argentina)
Aaron de Anchorena (1877-1965) flew with the balloon "Pampero"
June 24, 1916
first balloon crossing of the Andes
Eduardo Bradley and Angelo Zuloaga flew with their balloon "Edward Newbery"
May 27, 1931
first manned balloon flight to the stratosphere
Prof. Auguste Piccard (1884-1962), a belgian-swiss scientist, and Paul Kipfer travelled up in the first air-tight pressurized gondola of the balloon OO-BFH "FNRS" to an altitude of 15,781 meters. They launched from Augsburg (Germany) and made a forced landing in the Obergurgl glacier in Austria.
August 18, 1932
Piccard's second stratospheric flight
Prof. Auguste Piccard and M. Cosins
soared into the stratosphere in their balloon, OO-BFH "FNRS", and set a
new altitude record of 52,498 feet (16,940 m).
September 30, 1933
first soviet stratospheric flight
Soviet scientists G. Prokofyev, E. Birnbaum and K. Godunov launched with the
stratospheric balloon "CCCP-1" ("USSR-VR-62") and reached a hight of 19,000 m.
January 30, 1934
second soviet stratospheric flight
scientists I. Usyskin, A. Vasenko and P. Fedoseyenko launched with the
stratospheric balloon "Ossoviachim-1" and reached a hight of 22,000 m but the
balloon fell down and all men died in this accident
November 11, 1935
american stratospheric flight with a new altitude record
A. W. Stephens and O. A. Anderson launched from the "stratobowl"
in South Dakota in a huge (3.7 million cubic feet, 84,000 m³) helium
gas balloon "Explorer II" and reached a hight of 72,395
feet (22,612 m). This altitude record remained for 21 years.
April 13, 1963
first crossing of the English Channel in a hot air balloon
Ed Yost and Don Piccard flew 3 hours and 17 minutes with their hot air balloon
"Channel Champ" from England (launched in Rye, Sussex) to France (landed at St Georges near Gravelines du Nord).
February 10 - 17, 1973
first hot air balloon world championship
in the first world championship in Albuquerque, NM, USA took part 30 competitors. The first world champion was
Dennis Flodden from USA.
September 11 - 19, 1976
first gas balloon world championship
the first gas balloon championship took place in Augsburg, Germany an the winner was the swiss team
Peter Peterka / Jean-Paul Kuenzi.
August 12-17, 1978
first balloon crossing of the Atlantic
Maxie Anderson (1934-1983), Ben Abruzzo (1930-1985)
and Larry Newman flew in the gas balloon "Double Eagle II" from Presque
Isle, Maine (USA) to Evreux (France) in 5 days 17 hours 6 min
May 8-12, 1980
first balloon crossing of the North American continent
American Maxie Anderson and his son Kris flew in the gas
balloon "Kitty Hawk" from Fort Baker, CA (USA) to Ste. Felicite, Quebec (Canada) in 4 days 3 hours 54 min
November 10-12, 1981
first balloon crossing of the Pacific
Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, Ron Clark (all USA), and Rocky
Aoki (Japan) crossed Pacific in 3 days 12 hours and 31 minutes with their thirteen-story
high gas balloon "Double Eagle V". They launched from Nagashima (Japan)
and landed in Mendocino National Forest, Covelo, California (USA)
July 26, 1983
first Gordon-Bennett Cup after the 2nd World War
on the 200th anniversary of the first balloon flight was resumed in Paris
the Coupe Aeronautique de Gordon-Bennett after a 44-years-break.
The winner of this race was the polish team Stefan Makné / Ireneusz Cieslak which landing with their balloon
SP-BZO "Polonez" after a 690 km flight near Regensburg, Germany
September 14-18, 1984
first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic
Col. Joe W. Kittinger flew in his helium-filled balloon
"Rosie O'Grady's Balloon of Peace" 5.703 km / 3.544 miles (Great Circle) from Caribou, Maine (USA)
to Montenotte (Italy). The flight lasted 3 days 11 hours 45 min.
August 31 - September 2, 1986
first Roziere balloon crossing of the Atlantic
Dutch pilots Henk Brink, Evilien Brink and Willem Hageman flew in the Roziere Balloon "Dutch Viking" from
St. Johns to Almere (Netherlands) in 51 hours 14 min.
July 2-3, 1987
first hot air balloon crossing of the Atlantic
At 08:10 am UTC launched Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson
with their hot air balloon G-USUK "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" (at that time
the world's largest balloon - 60,521 m²) from Sugar Loaf Mountain, Maine
(USA) and flew in 31 hours 41 minutes to Limavady (North Ireland)
January 15-17, 1991
first hot air balloon crossing of the Pacific
Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand launched with the hot
air balloon "Virgin Pacific Flyer" from Miyakonojo (Japan) and landed after 46
hours 200 miles north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (Canada)
October 21, 1991
first overflight of Mt Everest in a hot air balloon
Two hot air ballons launched at 6:40 h from Gokyo (Nepal):
"Star Flyer I" with Chris Dewhurst, Leo Dickinson and "Star Flyer II" with
Andy Elson, Eric Jones. First flew "Star Flyer I" over Mt. Everest and
then "Star Flyer II". Both landed after 1 hour 20 min in a plateau south-east
of Sar, Tibet. They flew 37 km and set further two records with this flight:
the highest launch (15,536 ft; 4,735 metres) and highest touch-down (16,200
feet; 4,940 metres)
February, 9-14 1992
first crossing of the Atlantic in an East-West direction
Jesus Gonzales Green and Tomas Feliu Rius (Spain) flew
with their Rozier balloon "La Ciudad de Huelva" from the Canarian Island
El Hierro (Spain) to Maturin (Venezuela) in 5 days 9 hours 10 min.
September 16-22, 1992
longest non-stop balloon flight till that time
Americans Richard Abruzzo and Troy Bradley flew in "Chrysler 5" 6 days and 16 minutes from Bangor, Maine (USA) to near Casablanca Morocco in a Rozier balloon during the First Transatlantic Balloon Race.
Juni 18, 1993
first balloon flight across Australia
Australians Richard Smith and John Wallington flew in the balloon "Australian Geographic Flyer"
40 hours and 20 min from Carnarvon to Tabulam.
February 17-21, 1995
first solo balloon crossing of the Pacific
American Steven Fossett launched from Seoul (South Korea)
and flew 4 days 8 hours 14 min in the balloon "Pacific Peregrine" to Mendham, Saskatchewan (Canada)
December 12, 1995
first free balloon flight on the Antarctic continent
American Bill Arras launched at 9:25 am with his hot air balloon N51158
"JIMI" from Patriot Hills camp
April 21, 1996
first solo flight at the Geographical North Pole by Hot Air Balloon
Austrian pilot Ivan André Trifonov made this first solo flight
August 7-16, 1998
first Indian Ocean and South Atlantic crossing
It was the 4th Round the World attempt by Steven Fossett. He flown solo with his balloon "Solo Spirit 3"
in 8 days 13 hours 59 min from Malvinas Soccer Stadium in Mendoza (Argentina) to near Chesterfields Islands
in Pacific.
December 18-25, 1998
first Asia crossing in balloon
Per Lindstrand (Sweden), Richard Branson (UK) and Steven Fossett (USA) launched in Marrakech (Morocco) to their
Round the World attempt and flown in "ICO Global Challenger" in 7 days 9 hours 57 min over 21 countries
to near Oahu Island (Hawaii).
March 1 - 21, 1999
first nonstop circumnavigation of the world by balloon
the pilots Bertrand Piccard (Swiss) and Brian Jones (Briton) took off with their great balloon
"Breitling Orbiter 3" at 8:05 GMT from Chateau d'Oex in the Swiss Alps and flew over Italy, Mediterranean, Spain, Morocco,
Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Arabian Sea, India, Bangladesh, Burma, China, Taiwan, Pacific,
Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, WSW of Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Atlantic, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger and Egypt.
After 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes aloft they landed at ca. 9:00 GMT in a remote desert site in Western Egypt, near of Mut.
The covered distance was 45.755 km / 28.431 miles (track). They passed their round-the-world finishing point on March 20 at 9:54 GMT, when they
flew over a point at 9 degrees 27 minutes west longitude in Mauritania.
They launched from aerodrome of Duebendorf and landed after ca. 12 hours on the
Po plain in Italy.
(Great Circle distance: 5.001 km / 3.108 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 4.543 km / 2.823 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 8.383 km / 5.209 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 4.058 km / 2.522 miles)
(landing on July 3 at 15:51 UTC, Great Circle distance: 4.487 km / 2.788 miles)
(Great Circle: 7.672 km / 4.767 miles; Track: 10.885 km / 6.764 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 5.046 km / 3.135 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 5.340 km / 3.318 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 3.867 km / 2.403 miles)
(Great Circle: 8.748 km / 5.436 miles; Track: 9.900 km / 6.152 miles)
(Great Circle: 22.910 km / 14.236 miles; Track: 24.494 km / 15.220 miles)
(Great Circle: 19.962 km / 12.404 miles; Track: 21.500 km / 13.359 miles)
(Great Circle distance: 40.814 km / 25.361 miles)
