‘Two Eagles’ soar past gas balloon distance record
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO: Two balloonists crossing over the Pacific Ocean from Japan have surpassed a distance record for gas-filled balloon travel and are heading toward a landing in Mexico’s Baja California in two days.
Balloon pilots Troy Bradley, an American, and Leonid Tiukhtyaev, a Russian, who are collectively dubbed ‘Two Eagles’ had traveled more than 8,465km by Thursday, according to a tracking website set up for their journey.
They have surpassed the distance record of 8,383km for gas balloons set on the only previous manned trans-Pacific flight in 1981. The pilots are more than 400km westnorthwest of San Francisco, California.
When they eclipsed the distance record, a round of applause broke out in the mission control room at the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum in New Mexico, said Art Lloyd Jr, a mission support control worker at the site.
“We’re really excited and now concentrating on getting them to a nice safe landing,” Lloyd said.
Meanwhile, the pilots who took off on Saturday from Japan are pursuing a flight duration record of 137 hours aloft set in 1978 by a team crossing the Atlantic. That is expected to happen on Friday morning, Lloyd said.
The pilots are on track to land in Baja California, in Mexico, on Saturday, said officials with the Balloon Museum.
Lloyd said the cramped conditions of the capsule has not affected the pilots, who have subsisted on a diet that includes fresh fruit, freezedried hikers’ meals, beef jerky and the occasional hot meal from a small stove. They are equipped with cold weather gear including sleeping bags and a heater.