In what year did Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe?

Bertrand Piccard (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist. Along with Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe.

On 1 March 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones set off in the balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, a bright red, carbon-composite, egg-shaped craft measuring sixteen feet long and seven feet in diameter, from Château d'Oex in Switzerland on the first successful non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the globe, the first circumnavigation requiring no fuel for forward motion.

Piccard and Jones, in close cooperation with a team of meteorologists on the ground, caught rides in a series of jet streams that carried them 25,361 miles to land in Egypt after a 45,755 km (28,431 mi) flight lasting 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes.

In recognition of this accomplishment, he received awards including the Harmon Trophy, the FAI Gold Air Medal and the Charles Green Salver.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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5 Comments

james parrillo

I was surprised to see such recent years as options. I would have chosen a year one hundred or ninety years before that, since I thought someone may have successfully tried to cover the world in a balloon prior to trying in a plane. Thank you, Christine, James's wife

Peter Robertson

"Sorry" they always when we get it wrong! Don't be,we don't care that much. It's only a game!

Louella Wilson

2 points: Balloons do not go in straight lines (ie shortest route): If you look at the starting and ending point, they actually covered more than a circuit of the earth.

Kathryn Cavanagh

In the last sentence of the explanation it says "he" received awards.... There were 2 of them, which one received the award and, if only one, why not the other..??? Checking of written words is occasionally needed..!