Two balloonists, American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev, broke the world distance record for longest gas-filled balloon flight after crossing the Pacific Ocean this week. They are scheduled to land in Baja California on Saturday.
The two men left Japan in their helium-filled balloon, the Two Eagles, last Sunday morning. Gas balloons are different from hot air balloons or hybrid Roziere balloons because they use an enclosed chamber of helium gas within the balloon envelope for lift. Gas balloons can be difficult to control and require balloonists to adjust sand or water ballasts in order to ascend or descend.
Bradley and Tiukhtyaev have been mostly living off of fresh fruit, freeze-dried hikers’ meals and beef jerky. They have a small heater and oxygen gas masks on the balloon for protection from the cold temperatures and thin air at high altitudes. The Two Eagles balloon is fitted with monitors and other instruments that allow the balloonists to track their course and weather conditions that could impact their flight.
Bradley and Tiukhtyaev were scheduled to land in Canada, but a change in weather off the western coast of North America blew them on a different path toward Mexico. They aim to use the sand dunes in Baja California as a safe landing site.
The men’s goal was to surpass the current distance record of 5,208 miles set in 1981 and travel approximately 5,260 miles. On Thursday they broke their distance goal while flying a few hundred miles northwest of San Francisco. The two are also set to break the world’s duration record for longest travel time in a gas balloon. The record they are set to beat is 137 hours, 5 minutes and 50 seconds.
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