British balloon pioneer is killed by... his own runaway balloon
A BRITISH adventurer has died in a freak accident after a test flight in an experimental balloon.
Julian Nott, 74, who set more than 170 ballooning and aviation records, was packing up his cabin after landing when it tumbled down a mountainside with him still inside.
In what his family called ‘an extraordinary and unforeseeable accident’, he sustained multiple injuries and died in hospital two days later. Artist Anne Luther, his partner of 30 years, was by his side.
A family statement paid tribute to ‘an exceptionally brilliant man who rejoiced in exploration and adventure. He will be missed but never forgotten’.
Mr Nott was the first to pilot a balloon across Australia and the Sahara desert and he flew the world’s first solarpowered balloon across the English Channel.
Known as the father of modern ballooning, he carried out vital research for NASA and the US Navy and was the only balloonist ever elected to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
Less than two years ago, aged 72, he set a world record for the highest tandem skydive from 31,916 ft – nearly six miles up.
His fatal accident came last Sunday afternoon three hours after he had successfully landed on remote Palomar Mountain, 230 miles from his home in Santa Barbara, California. He was said to be engaged in research into highaltitude weather technology for the University of Florida.
Mr Nott had already shaken off one neardeath experience in 1974 as he was left hanging 45,830 ft off the ground. It came after he had set a new world altitude record by flying at 55,550 ft in a hotair balloon above India.
‘For a while I just dangled helplessly, holding on to a single line that was certain to come loose at any moment,’ he said later.
‘By the sheerest good fortune, the balloon settled back to earth and I survived.’
Oxfordeducated Mr Nott set 79 ballooning world records and 96 British aviation records.
In the first crossing of Australia in a ‘pumpkin’ balloon, he set a world distance record with a 1,486mile trip from Perth to Broken Hill and a world duration record of 33 hours nine minutes
He repeatedly defied extreme conditions. Only last December he chose California’s Big Painted Canyon for his 80th hike of the year, calling it: ‘Strenuous but one of my most favourite hikes.’
In 2014 Prince Charles presented him with the Royal Aero Club’s prestigious gold award.
The famed Smithsonian Air and Space Museum described Mr Nott, originally from Bristol, as ‘a central figure in the expansion of ballooning as an organiser, pilot, and most of all as arguably the leading figure to apply modern science to manned balloon design’.
A family statement said last night ‘A brilliant light was extinguished with the untimely passing of Julian Nott.
‘His love of flying, adventure, discovery and life are a part of his legacy that will live on forever.’
He is survived by partner Anne, his brother Robert Nott and two nieces. He will be buried in England in a family plot.
‘He rejoiced in exploration’