BALLOON CROSSES THE ATLANTIC:

August 17, 1978

The Double Eagle II completes the first transatlantic balloon flight when it
lands in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Preque
Isle, Maine. The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie
Anderson, and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey.Human
flight first became a reality in the early 1780s with the successful development
of the hot-air balloon by French papermaking brothers Joseph and Ètienne
Montgolfier. Soon balloons were being filled with lighter-than-air gas, such as
helium or hydrogen, to provide buoyancy. An early achievement of ballooning came
in 1785 when Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became
the first to cross the English Channel by air. In the 18th and 19th centuries,
balloons were used more for military surveillance and scientific study than for
transport or sport. As a mode of air travel, the balloon was supplanted by the
self-propelled dirigible--a motorized balloon--in the late 19th century.In the
early 20th century, however, interest in sport ballooning began to grow, and an
international trophy was offered annually for long-distance flights. Belgian
balloonists dominated these early competitions. After World War II, new
technology made ballooning safer and more affordable, and by the 1960s the sport
enjoyed widespread popularity. The transatlantic flight, first accomplished by
aircraft and dirigible in 1919, remained an elusive goal of elite
balloonists.From 1859 until the flight of the Double Eagle II in 1978, there
were 17 unsuccessful transatlantic balloon flights, resulting in the deaths of
at least seven balloonists. In September 1977, Ben Abruzzo and Maxie Anderson
made their first attempt in the Double Eagle I but were blown off course and
forced to ditch off Iceland after traveling 2,950 miles in 66 hours. Abruzzo
took several months to recover from frostbite suffered during the ordeal, but by
1978 he and Anderson were ready to make the attempt again. They added Larry
Newman as a third pilot, and on September 11, 1978, the Double Eagle II lifted
off from Preque Isle, Maine.The 11-story, helium-filled balloon made good
progress during the first four days, and the three pilots survived on hot dogs
and canned sardines. The only real trouble of the trip occurred on August 16,
when atmospheric conditions forced the Double Eagle II to drop from 20,000 feet
to a dangerous 4,000 feet. They jettisoned ballast material and soon rose to a
safe height again. That night, they reached the coast of Ireland and on August
17 flew across England en route to their destination of Le Bourget field in
Paris, site of Charles Lindbergh's landing after flying solo in a plane across
the Atlantic in 1927. Over southern England, their wives flew close enough to
the balloon in a private plane to blow kisses at their husbands.Blown slightly
off course toward the end of the journey, they touched down just before dusk on
August 17 near the hamlet of Miserey, about 50 miles west of Paris. Their
137-hour flight set new endurance and distance records. The Americans were
greeted by family members and jubilant French spectators who followed their
balloon by car. That night, Larry Newman, who at 31 was the youngest of the
three pilots, was allowed to sleep with his wife in the same bed where Charles
Lindbergh slept after his historic transatlantic flight five decades before.In
1981, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, Ron Clark, and Rocky Aoki of Japan flew from
Nagashimi, Japan, to Mendocino National Forest in California in the first
transpacific flight. American Joe Kittinger made a solo transatlantic balloon
flight in 1984. In 1995, American Steve Fosset accomplished a solo transpacific
flight. One of the last frontiers of ballooning was conquered in 1999, when
Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Englishman Brian Jones completed the first
nonstop trip around the world in a hybrid helium and hot-air balloon. They flew
from the Swiss Alps, circumnavigated the globe, and landed in Egypt, having
traveled more than 29,000 miles in 20 days.Then, in 2002, American adventurer
Steve Fossett became the first man in history to fly around the world solo in a
hot-air balloon.