Scientist and balloonist who set dozens of world aviation records
JULIAN NOTT, who has died aged 74, was a balloonist and scientist who set
79 world records and 96 British records. Among them was reaching an altitude of 55,137ft in a hot-air balloon.
At the age of 72 he set a world record for the highest documented tandem skydiving jump, from 31,916ft. In 2014, Nott helped Alan Eustace break the record for the world’s highest parachute jump, from an altitude of 135,890 ft.
Nott established dozens of other world records for feats of altitude, distance and time in the air. But breaking records was not his main objective. “Most of all I hope to use science to advance and innovate,” he wrote. “But setting a world record is indisputable proof of the success of a new design.”
He was involved in developing balloons capable of operating at the destinations of space flights within the Solar System, and had flown a working prototype of a balloon to land on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, at -175C, the approximate temperature of Titan’s atmosphere.
Julian Richard Nott was born in Bristol on June 22 1944. He attended Epsom College and St John’s College, Oxford, going on to gain a master’s in Physical Chemistry. He then worked in Bangladesh with the VSO.
He first became interested in ballooning when he was dancing in a London night club to the 5th Dimension hit Up, Up and Away and had the bright idea of booking a flight as a birthday treat for his girlfriend.
In the event, she was unimpressed, but his life changed forever. Within a year he had one of the first balloon pilot’s licences and embarked on a career that included corporate work for sponsors and flying over events such as rock festivals.
He became bored with that, however, and began to apply his science and engineering background to ballooning. Among his many achievements was designing and building the first hot air balloon with a pressurised cabin, taking it to a world record altitude. He also made the first balloon crossing of
the Sahara and the first across Australia.
He traversed the Alps and piloted the world’s first solar balloon across the English Channel. He also designed, built and piloted the Nazca Prehistoric Balloon, using only methods and materials available to the Pre-inca Peruvians 1,000 years ago. He was the first person to fly a “pumpkin” super pressure balloon, a concept that is currently being developed by Nasa.
He also worked on the airships that flew over the Los Angeles and Athens Olympic Games in 1984 and 2004 respectively. Before he died, he had been developing a system for balloons in which conventional ballast is replaced with cryogenic helium.
In later years Nott was an adjunct professor at Cal Tech and the University of California at Santa Barbara and at Los Angeles, lecturing on entrepreneurship for scientist, engineers and mathematicians. He was an honorary life member of the governing body of St John’s College, a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Explorers Club, the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Geographical Society.
When he died, Nott, who lived in Santa Barbara, California, had been flying an experimental balloon he had invented to test high-altitude technology. He landed the balloon, with its pressurised cabin, on the side of a mountain at Warner Springs, north of San Diego in California.
After the landing, as he was inside the cabin packing up, it tumbled down the mountain with him inside, causing injuries from which he did not recover.
Julian Nott is survived by his partner, the artist Anne Luther.
Julian Nott, born June 22 1944, died March 25 2019