Hot-Air Balloonists Crossing Atlantic Break Record
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Me. — A British tycoon and a Swedish-born balloonist broke a distance record Thursday and sped along at up to 142 m.p.h. as they attempted the first Atlantic crossing in a hot-air balloon.
Traveling far faster than expected with the aid of the jet stream, Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand covered the first 1,000 miles of their 3,400-mile journey in a little more than 10 hours. They broke the distance mark for hot-air balloons at 907 miles while passing about 140 miles southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
“It has been the most spectacular and magnificent flight,” Branson said by radio. “When we arrived at 27,000 feet, we hit the very cold weather (about 40 below zero). There was an enormous cloud behind us that created a massive vapor trail. For a moment I thought the balloon was on fire.”
Branson, 36, the head of an entertainment conglomerate and chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways, and Lindstrand, 38, lifted off Thursday morning from a Maine ski resort. Their 21-story-high balloon, with a pressurized capsule suspended below, had never before been inflated or flown.
