Flight From Japan To The North American West Coast Will Set A New Record At 5,208 Miles If Successful

On August 27, 1783, Jacques Charles launched his first gas-filled balloon in France.  One observer of this event was our own American representative to France, Benjamin Franklin.  When asked by another scientist watching the flight with great skepticism, “What good is it?” Franklin replied, “What good is a new-born babe?”.

According to an Associated Press report, balloon pilots Troy Bradley and Leonid Tiukhtyaev will make an attempt at the long-distance flight in the first part of next year. They made their announcement of their plans for the record-breaking flight attempt at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta last week.

The report said that this would be a distance record as well as an endurance record. The two balloon pilots will be housed in a capsule type vehicle’s suspended beneath the helium bag. They plan to fly at an altitude of about 15,000 feet and must be prepared for a flight of several days in cold temperatures.

According to the report, Bradley is quoted as saying “It’s like a camping trip in the sky, you need to bring all of the supplies you’re going to need because you can’t come back.”

The ability to make this flight has been demonstrated before. While a manned flight like this has not been attempted, unmanned balloon flights from Japan to the United States did occur doing during World War II. These balloons were equipped with bombs to start fires in the woods of the Northwest United States, and some of them did make it.

(Image of gas balloon from file)

FMI; www.balloonfiesta.com/