- 7 months ago
NOVA covers the latest efforts to be first to circumnavigate the planet non-stop in a balloon. NOVA's cameras are on board for all three attempts, including that of the long-shot underdog, American Steve Fossett, who rode high-speed winds solo from Missouri to a remote corner of India against incredible odds.
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00:01Tonight on NOVA, peril at 30,000 feet.
00:05Are you scared?
00:07I just decided an hour ago to proceed across the Atlantic, so it's a go.
00:11A balloon race becomes a brush with death.
00:15And skill, stamina and science are the key to survival.
00:19I don't think I'm willing to risk going into Libyan airspace.
00:22Turbulence might be more than just a scare factor.
00:25It just might slam them into a mountain.
00:27Climb on board for danger in the jet stream.
00:51Major funding for NOVA is provided by
00:54The Park Foundation, dedicated to education and quality television.
01:01And by
01:02The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
01:06January 1997, three teams risked their lives in one of the last remaining aeronautical challenges.
01:16To fly non-stop around the world by balloon.
01:20An adventure that tests scientific ingenuity and individual bravery to the point of obsession.
01:26The chairman of the Virgin Air Line and entertainment empire, Richard Branson, is a man used to the limelight.
01:28The chairman of the Virgin Air Line and entertainment empire, Richard Branson, is a man used to the limelight.
01:30He leads the British team, which plans to take off from Morocco.
01:37Oh, for the ladder, man.
01:38Richard, can you give us away, Richard?
01:39I don't think there's any adventure that I could do in my lifetime.
01:41That could top this.
01:42I mean, it must be one of the ultimate challenges in the world.
01:43I don't think there's any adventure that I could do in my lifetime that could top this.
01:56I mean, it must be one of the ultimate challenges left to mankind without wanting to over-exaggerate.
02:13Branson may be the most flamboyant member of his team, but the inspiration comes from Swedish-born balloon builder, Per Lindstrin.
02:25The known dangers we can handle.
02:28I mean, we have equipment for that, but the unknown one, like the severe weather, we can't.
02:32I mean, we can't steer away like an airline.
02:35It can divert.
02:36We can't do that.
02:38A former pilot in the Swedish Air Force, Lindstrin was in Morocco with Branson 12 months earlier when they failed to get off the ground.
02:48This time, they have an even bigger balloon.
02:55The third team member is one of the engineers.
03:00Alex Ritchie has helped build all Richard Branson's record-attempting balloons, but this is the first time he will fly.
03:10Branson and Lindstrin are a seasoned partnership.
03:15In gigantic hot-air balloons, they've flown the Atlantic and the Pacific, but not without problems.
03:26My last average speed.
03:29They came close to losing their lives on both attempts, but lived to tell a record-breaking tale.
03:342.7.
03:38Lindstrin knows that extreme balloon flights are fraught with uncertainty.
03:43A circumnavigation will push technology to the limits.
03:47Even pinpricks in the giant balloon can reduce the chances of making it around the world.
03:53The balloon built in England by the Lindstrin Balloon Factory is the largest balloon of its type ever built.
03:59Lindstrin has chosen a sophisticated aircraft-style pressurized capsule.
04:09On the outside, six tanks weighing a ton each will be filled with propane gas to fuel burners and power two onboard engines
04:18that will compress the thin air at altitude to keep the balloonist alive.
04:22With such a heavy payload, a balloon of this size has never flown before.
04:30No one really knows how it will behave.
04:33They'll soon find out.
04:35They're just waiting for the right winds at their launch site in Marrakesh to take off.
04:39No, John, I'm just saying, it can't be any quicker than 20 minutes.
04:43So you want to be...
04:44Psychiatrist Bertrand Bacard leads a Swiss team.
04:59The co-pilot is Belgian balloonist Wim Verstraten.
05:03They've raised two million from Swiss watch manufacturer Breitling to make the attempt.
05:12Bertrand Bacard comes from an extraordinary family.
05:16His grandfather, Auguste, was the first man to enter the stratosphere in 1931.
05:21His father, Jacques, has dived deeper than any man in history.
05:25In my family, I had always the example of people making scientific adventures.
05:32My grandfather and my father, but also all the people that I met when I was a child.
05:37All these people gave me the taste of adventure, of science, of exploration.
05:43And I was deeply impressed by that when I was a child.
05:47The other teams plan to fly with heavy tanks of propane gas.
05:51But the Swiss engineers have opted for a yet untested system that uses kerosene to fuel the burners.
06:02A liquid at normal temperatures, kerosene can be contained in lightweight rubber bags stowed both outside and inside their capsule.
06:11The Breitling orbiter is being built by Cameron balloons in England.
06:18Picard has brought his daughter Monique here to check on progress.
06:22To save even more weight, Picard and Verstraten are using an advanced super lightweight carbon fiber gondola.
06:31Using a system similar to the space shuttle, the crew will breathe air that's recirculated, chemically scrubbed and mixed with onboard oxygen.
06:42With less weight to carry, the Breitling balloon is much smaller than the Virgin craft, and the crew hopes easier to control.
06:51The most courageous, or foolhardy, of the teams is due to take off from the Bush Baseball Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
07:08Chicago businessman Steve Fawcett is spending $300,000 of his own money on the cheapest and simplest of the challenges.
07:23He plans to go solo, flying alone for up to three weeks.
07:27Remarkably, Steve Fawcett hadn't stepped into a balloon until 1993.
07:38I deliberately entered the sport of ballooning for the purpose of trying to be the first person to fly around the world by balloon.
07:49In 1995, Fawcett made his first attempt.
07:51Taking off from the old Olympic Stadium in South Korea, he flew for three days, landing in Canada in the longest-distance balloon flight in history.
08:05The next year, he tried again.
08:10He launched from South Dakota, but the outer skin of his balloon tore to shreds.
08:15He never managed to leave the North American continent.
08:21This is very disappointing and embarrassing, and I didn't come anywhere close to making it around the world.
08:29Fawcett is forced to fly at a lower altitude than the other challengers because his tiny capsule is unpressurized.
08:36The pressure inside and outside the capsule is always the same.
08:41I want to fly in an unpressurized capsule.
08:45I decided that, well, I better physically prepare myself for this.
08:48And just as a mountain climber would, I sought to acclimatize, so I had this personal capsule in my home, and I was able to sleep in it.
08:59And I could set the altitude to 12,000, 15,000, or 18,000 feet.
09:04Well, I don't think anyone is needed to take on acclimatization in preparation for a balloon flight.
09:12People like balloons. They're interesting, they're pretty, but there's also a romance associated with a round-the-world flight.
09:20And this harkens back to a different age, a 19th century type of exploration situation.
09:32All the global challengers have balloons that share a common design.
09:35It's called a rosier, after the Frenchman, who invented it in the early days of ballooning.
09:41It was in Paris, in 1783, that Pilotra de Rosier took off in a crude hot air balloon made of paper.
09:57It flew for half an hour.
09:58The principle was simple. Hot air rises.
10:05That's because it's less dense than the surrounding colder air.
10:09Trap the hot air in a bag, make it carry a load, and you have a basic hot air balloon.
10:16Early hot air balloons couldn't stay up for long.
10:20The weight of fuel to keep the air hot was the problem.
10:24A newly discovered, lighter-than-air gas, hydrogen, seemed to offer a solution.
10:33It could take a balloon up without being heated.
10:37Two years after his historic first flight, de Rosier invented a balloon that he hoped would make long-distance flight possible.
10:46It combined the new hydrogen gas with hot air.
10:51The hot air would heat the hydrogen, causing it to expand, and making it lighter still to give the balloon even more lifting power.
11:04In his new balloon, de Rosier tried to fly the English Channel.
11:12Sparks from his onboard heater ignited the hydrogen.
11:16It exploded.
11:18The first man to fly was also the first to die in an air accident.
11:23The modern version of de Rosier's balloon has one important difference.
11:28Inert helium gas, unknown in the 18th century, replaces the hydrogen.
11:35Underneath the sphere of helium, burners heat a cone of hot air.
11:39The hot air applies gentle heating to the helium, making it less dense and increasing its lifting power.
11:49At 1.1 million cubic feet, the Virgin Global Challenger is the largest Rosier balloon ever built.
12:00The Breitling Orbiter balloon is just half the size, at 500,000 cubic feet.
12:07With Fawcett's balloon, just a quarter the volume of virgins.
12:12Making it around the world in a balloon is both technically and physically challenging.
12:18The race will take three weeks.
12:22All three balloons need to catch the fastest air currents that for a few short weeks in mid-winter girdle the earth.
12:29These winds, called jet streams, are great rivers of air hundreds of miles wide at 20,000 to 40,000 feet.
12:39Fawcett's balloon will be flying lower, just beneath the jet stream.
12:47The Virgin team has chosen to take off from Morocco to catch the subtropical jet stream that sweeps east across North Africa.
12:56The crew arrive at the launch site with high hopes.
13:00Marrakesh is usually directly under the subtropical jet stream, which can reach speeds up to 250 miles per hour.
13:09At the moment, the jet streams are strong, but running hundreds of miles southwest of Morocco.
13:25We'll have very good conditions, we think, tomorrow morning for takeoff.
13:29We're not going to have very fast conditions the first day actually into the jet.
13:32But once we're in the jet, we think we can get tucked in there and stay there really the whole way to the Pacific.
13:42The Moroccans turned up in style to see the balloon off, but engineer Alex Ritchie is impatient to get off the ground.
13:50Very happy to see you all just fading away beneath me there.
13:55Making a careful choice about the time of launch is crucial if they are to be swept southeast at just the right moment to catch the jet stream.
14:04Inserting the balloon into the jet can be fraught with danger.
14:15These fast winds could cheer the balloon apart.
14:19Rosier balloons have natural float altitudes, the height at which they will stop rising.
14:26That is where the lifting force of the helium filling the balloon is balanced by the weight of the balloon and capsule.
14:33The balloon should stay at this height until the temperature drops at night and the helium begins to cool and lose its lift.
14:41The virgin balloon is designed to float at 30,000 feet.
14:47As the balloon rises into thinner air, the helium will expand until the balloon is fully inflated.
14:53Any excess helium then spills down long fabric safety tubes.
15:04The balloon needs to be big.
15:05It must hold enough helium to counterbalance the weight of three men, six tons of fuel, and an aluminum capsule filled with sophisticated navigation and communication equipment.
15:18The final launch preparations are completed in a hurry, so the countdown can begin.
15:38Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.
16:01The launch is clean, and the balloon rises easily to altitude.
16:05We settled down at 29,750 feet, exactly what we've been told we would do.
16:27We headed off over the Atlas Mountains.
16:30Balloons go where the wind takes them.
16:32They can't be steered in any conventional sense.
16:37But prevailing winds vary in speed and direction at different heights.
16:43By changing your altitude, you can, to some degree, influence where you go.
16:50Thanks, Martin. We'll talk in a nice time.
16:52By using their onboard burners, the team members can heat the helium, causing the balloon to climb.
16:57They also carry lead, water, and extra propane as ballast.
17:02Throwing it out reduces weight and lets the balloon climb.
17:07It's not an exact science.
17:10Early in the flight, they learned that the ground crew failed to unlock the safety catches, or couplings, on the capsule's propane fuel tanks.
17:21Engineer Alex Ritchie realizes this is a crucial error.
17:28Each tank is connected to the capsule by two fuel hoses.
17:32There's a quick disconnect coupling in each of these hoses, which is designed to break free when the tank is released.
17:38The locking mechanism should be released shortly before takeoff.
17:43Clearly that didn't actually happen.
17:45The tanks serve a dual function.
17:48They contain pressurized propane gas as fuel for the burners, but they also act as emergency ballast.
17:56Weighing a ton each, they can be dropped quickly.
17:59With the safety couplings on, that's not possible.
18:04The ultimate implication if you can't release a couplings is that you won't have enough releasable ballast in case of a dramatic descent, you will hit the ground.
18:15Despite the problems with the tanks, the flight is going well.
18:19The balloon has been at 30,000 feet for three and a half hours.
18:24Meanwhile, the exhausted launch team flies back to the project control center in London.
18:32All long-distance balloon flights need backup.
18:36The ground crew in London clears the way ahead.
18:40Could you call him as a matter of urgency, please, and see what assistance he could give, if any?
18:47The control center confirms overflight permissions.
18:51They give the pilots weather reports and technical advice.
18:55And should the balloonists get into trouble, they alert search and rescue services.
19:02It's beginning to get dark.
19:04We're soon to leave Morocco and head over to Algeria.
19:12Losing altitude quite fast.
19:14Trying to sort of calculate how much heat to safely put it in the envelope.
19:19During the day, the balloon stayed up without using the burners.
19:24As night approaches and the sun goes down, the helium cools and the balloon begins to fall.
19:29To counteract this, Lindstrand plans to burn fuel to warm the helium, or at least that's the theory.
19:43Just as it started getting dark, we were going down at an incredibly rapid rate.
19:48We didn't have the fuel tank to release, which would stop us from plummeting downwards.
19:5217,000.
19:54Oh, 21 knots.
19:56Lindstrand is burning as hard as he can to warm the helium, but the balloon is falling rapidly.
20:04Calculations based on the performances of smaller test balloons are proving wildly misleading.
20:10They need to drop a fuel tank to stop the fall, but they can't.
20:17The safety couplings are still on.
20:20It's going to be sunset.
20:23Not very long.
20:24The sun is just above the horizon.
20:26Remember, this balloon is incredibly big.
20:29The size of the balloon was obviously causing big problems.
20:34As our descent increased, we got into a more serious situation.
20:38The rate of climate indicator, because they didn't want to stop it.
20:43The balloon started doing a couple of death dyes.
20:47At that point, it could not obviously drop the fuel tanks.
20:51The only thing it could drop was ballast.
20:53First it was water and lead shot.
20:56Then anything they could grab to save their lives.
20:59Alex, Alex, Alex.
21:00Alex standing down in the hatch, just passing out the boxes, and then we were just hurting them out.
21:10Still going down, still going down.
21:12I passed boxes of water up to Richard.
21:15The top door was open.
21:17He heaved it out of the top door.
21:19A fair amount of food, all the oil, and really just anything we could let our hands on, and we were still descending.
21:25And we must have moved about three quarters of a tonne.
21:27Tumbling down towards the desert floor in pitch black in the Atlas Mountains is not mighty of fun.
21:34At last the balloon stops falling, and they climb slightly.
21:39But then, as the helium cools even further, they start to descend once more.
21:45I decided that a tank had to go, and then it was imperative, of course, to make sure the tank would come free when he pressed the button.
21:52As an engineer, Alex Ritchie knew the balloon in detail.
21:58He now climbed out onto the roof of the capsule to unlock the safety latches and release the tanks.
22:04I had about three minutes to get the couplings off.
22:08Neither Rory, myself, nor Pair, I think could have got those couplings off in three minutes.
22:13It was dark out there, so I wasn't able to see the ground.
22:16There was just a black void, and maybe that was a good thing.
22:20I pressed the button, and the cutter fired perfectly, and I actually saw the tank fall away.
22:39Twice the balloon was within a minute of crashing into the ground.
22:42At one point, they were less than a thousand feet from the desert floor.
22:48The ordeal is starting to take its toll.
22:57Virgin's Control Centre in London is tracking the capsule's height and position via satellite.
23:02They become increasingly alarmed.
23:07This just shot up from 5,000 feet up to 11,000 feet.
23:11I'm afraid we've had to dump all ballast, including all our water supplies, food supplies, oil, into the desert to avoid a crash landing.
23:20You know, I was asking myself, what the hell am I doing up here again?
23:24I was saying to myself, you know, if I get out of this, for God's sake, don't do it again.
23:29With their supplies gone, and the balloon hard to control, Pair decides to end the flight.
23:36There's a possibility of a rough landing, and we do have 3,000 kilos of propane on board.
23:42The pilots have just informed us that they've crossed the Rees Mountains, and they've begun a descent for a landing.
23:50It's good to get down fairly soon. There are some power lines a considerable distance ahead, maybe a mile.
23:55Alex watches for obstacles as Pair tries to set the balloon down as gently as possible.
24:02When it was apparent that we were going to be on the ground within 4 or 5 or 6 seconds,
24:09I came back down again and strapped myself into my seat.
24:13I was anticipating a blow. You don't know how severe it was going to be.
24:16As soon as the capsule lands, Pair releases the balloon. Free of its payload, it shoots into the air.
24:26Keep it there, keep it there. Wow. Brilliant. Wow.
24:30Look at the behavior, exactly as it behaves. Slits up, turns upside down and comes straight down.
24:38Once the envelope is cut away, it very rapidly inverts, which allows the helium to spill out.
24:43The bladder of the diaphragm, which is between the helium part and the hot air part, ruptures.
24:47So very soon it deflates and comes down, and in fact landed only about 100 yards from where we were.
24:56Absolute relief. It's almost explosive, really.
24:59Then, you look around, you notice how quiet everything is.
25:03We had a perfect landing, and everything is secure, and we're all perfectly fit.
25:09OK. I just tried to phone one, but it was engaged, as it always is.
25:13If I don't get a chance...
25:14Pardon?
25:17Oh, she's on the phone to the press.
25:20See?
25:21The Virgin Global Challenger team had flown for 20 hours and covered barely 400 miles.
25:30In the world's largest Rosier balloon, they had been lucky to escape with their lives.
25:40The Breitling Orbiter crew is preparing to leave at dawn, launching close to home in the Swiss Alps.
25:47First, they will ride gentle winds that flow south to get to the fast winds over Africa.
25:54They plan to catch the same subtropical jet stream the Virgin team intended to take.
26:02Regular satellite images of the Earth reveal wind speed and direction at all altitudes.
26:09With this information, meteorologists can forecast two days ahead where the prevailing winds will flow.
26:20The weather conditions were exactly what we were waiting for.
26:24It means completely calm on the ground.
26:27North winds going to North Africa, about 100 kilometers per hour.
26:31Then a nice jet stream above North Africa going north of Himalaya.
26:38It's like astronauts for the first time going to the moon.
26:41We were the first time trying to get around the world as a balloon.
26:44I think we have a good team. I think also that we should have had a few hours more for all the checks and for a few other things.
26:59But it's like this. It's like this.
27:03It's like this. My little daughter.
27:06Bonjour.
27:11Merci mon amour. Merci mon trésor.
27:19Je te donne des crimes de la voiture.
27:22Merci.
27:23It is a critical moment. A slow lift off because of temperature inversion. It is spectacular nonetheless.
27:44We think that the extreme inversion probably means that you're a little heavy for it.
27:51So you need to lose some accuracy possible if not in this world.
27:57Climbing the weight actually is about one and a half to two meters per second.
28:02The church bells were ringing all the time.
28:05And ticking off at that moment was some part of heaven. Very special.
28:09Let's hope that he takes some heat from the sun there.
28:16Well, he takes a lot of heat now. It's fine.
28:20I just have a few pictures in my head.
28:23The Mont Blanc, the mountains of Chateaudet, with the Swiss route.
28:26It was great, but we were so busy.
28:28Unknown to the pilots, as their balloon struggles to clear the highest alpine peaks,
28:34disaster is about to strike.
28:39In a bizarre echo of the problems on the Virgin flight,
28:44the Breitling ground crew has failed to tighten one tiny clip.
28:51It attaches a fuel hose to a kerosene tank inside the capsule.
28:56As they climb, the air pressure decreases and liquid kerosene oozes onto the floor.
29:02We saw some liquid leaking on both corners of the gondola.
29:08And in the beginning, we thought it was only some snow melting.
29:12And when we looked at it from closer, we saw it was kerosene.
29:16Bertrand and I were very, very, very frightened and surprised.
29:22The kerosene fumes burned our eyes, burned the throat.
29:27We started to take all the hatches out from the floor.
29:30And so there was kerosene everywhere.
29:32We couldn't fix the leak because we didn't know where exactly the problem was.
29:36Kerosene continued to pour onto the floor of the gondola.
29:41After three hours, Picard and Verstraten were choking on the fumes.
29:46They decide to ditch in the Mediterranean.
29:49They are around 1,000 meters above sea level.
30:00And landing is foreseen within the next 15 to 30 minutes.
30:04In Geneva, the ground crew is coordinating all communications with the stricken balloon.
30:13Representing Cameron Balloons, who had built both the Breitling and the faucet craft,
30:17was Alan Noble.
30:20After more than a year's work,
30:23and after a brilliant launch,
30:26to feel that the whole thing was going to rag so quickly.
30:32He says, we are ready for ditching.
30:35Please tell everyone that all seems to be really okay.
30:39I don't say that to reassure anyone it is true.
30:43We stabilized a few meters above the surface of the sea.
30:50We ditched into the helicopter of the Coast Guard, the airplane of the French Army.
30:5530 kilometers southeast of Montpellier.
31:01And they said that they landed at 1403.
31:05When we saw the balloon in the water, we said, well, it's really a very big waste.
31:09Picard and Verstraten's attempt ends in just six hours.
31:13Their balloon is a write-off.
31:19Two out of two failures is a pretty bad record.
31:22Isn't it time we caught a halt to this very expensive game before someone gets badly hurt?
31:27Well, so far, nobody's been hurt at all.
31:29There's only one challenger left in the race.
31:33Steve Fawcett is completing his final preparations for an early evening launch.
31:42Fawcett's takeoff side is Sub-Zero Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis.
31:47Actually, when I walk out on the field and see how well organized my team has all of this,
31:57I actually get a great deal of confidence that this is all going to work out.
32:02He has this really valuable quality, which is that he can sit in a cold, dark box for weeks on end and be happy.
32:13He does this for fun.
32:18We've got a fair amount of wind at the top of the stadium.
32:20Looks like maybe ten knots of wind.
32:22But that's really close to our limits.
32:25We forecast substantially less.
32:27So we're going to hold out a half hour to an hour and a half to see whether we can get a wind of more like five knots.
32:33Like a prettier launch.
32:36Working from his home, a key member of Fawcett's team is meteorologist Lou Balonis.
32:43He's been running a series of flight path projections based on satellite data.
32:48We have quite an extensive telecommunications array to help us with this project.
32:54A meteorologist can get nearly any type of meteorological data that they need right into their home in order to support balloon operations halfway around the world.
33:04Balonis has found winds that can carry Fawcett straight out into the Atlantic.
33:11But he's also spotted a problem.
33:14The winds ahead fork in two directions, with the strength of the safer northerly track beginning to wane.
33:21The southern route had more political problems.
33:26Libya, Iraq, Iran, on to Afghanistan and China.
33:31The northern route wasn't a free ride because I still had to deal with Russia.
33:36And Russia was reticent to give approval.
33:38I don't want to move this balloon over that way.
33:40Days after his own global attempt, Richard Branson comes to see the launch.
33:48He's never met Steve Fawcett.
33:50In fact, Branson isn't sure what Fawcett looks like.
33:53How are you?
33:54Nice to meet you.
33:55Nice to meet you.
33:56Nice to meet you.
33:57Nice to meet you.
33:58Nice to meet you.
33:59So, yeah.
34:00Get ready to go.
34:01I wonder what an adventure he's going to have in there.
34:02Yes.
34:03IMC process.
34:04Yeah.
34:05Are you asking me?
34:06I'm sorry.
34:08How are you?
34:09How are you?
34:10How are you?
34:11How are you?
34:12How are you?
34:13How are you?
34:14How are you?
34:15How are you?
34:16The wind drops slightly.
34:18With two tons of propane gas and open burners, a miscalculation could mean that the balloon
34:23might not clear the stadium.
34:29I'm not sure how dangerous my equipment is from the explosion standpoint.
34:34Obviously, it's a lot of propane, but it is very well contained in these cylinders.
34:40Any further delay and their weather window will be lost.
34:44We need to get that rope undone right there.
34:47We'll do it with the lattice.
34:52A little more.
34:53Okay, let's have weight on and hold the balloon down.
35:14Woo!
35:15Woo!
35:16Woo!
35:17Woo!
35:18Woo!
35:19Woo!
35:20Woo!
35:21Woo!
35:22Woo!
35:23Woo!
35:24Woo!
35:25Woo!
35:26Woo!
35:27Woo!
35:28Woo!
35:29Woo!
35:30Woo!
35:31Woo!
35:32Fawcett climbs to 18,000 feet to catch 50 mile an hour winds to carry him across the country
35:37and out into the Atlantic.
35:40He breathes oxygen because he's on his own, and it is a real physical effort to keep the balloon up.
35:48Fawcett works the burners, forcing the balloon to climb into the cold, thin air.
35:53Really exactly as forecast, and I'm on track to go out over the Atlantic from North Carolina, and over...
36:03One of Fawcett's heaters failed, and he spent the first night at minus 30 degrees trying to fix it.
36:09There was no chance of sleep.
36:11Air traffic control and every passing aircraft wanted to chat.
36:16So, Steve, are you there by yourself?
36:19Well, yes.
36:20This is a solo flight.
36:22Are you scared?
36:23No, it's a...
36:24I mean, it's a big decision.
36:26I just decided an hour ago to proceed across the Atlantic, so it's a go.
36:31Snowstorms close in on Fawcett's control center in downtown Chicago.
36:36We are still over land, but we are only roughly...
36:44He'll be foraying outside into the Atlantic Ocean.
36:4820 miles west of the eastern coast.
36:51He's going for the coast of Europe.
36:54Ground speed 65 knots. Hot damn. Love it.
36:58The entire control team are volunteers.
37:02Gas balloonists Bruce Comstock and Nick Salm have half a century of flying experience between them.
37:09Bo Kemper is project manager, handling over-flight permissions.
37:14If this were a space shot, NASA would be saying everything's going great.
37:19In Nebraska, Balonis continues to track the balloon via the worldwide InMarsat satellite system.
37:27Although Fawcett can use voice communications, he prefers to stay in touch using email.
37:33Transmitted by radio and then telephone line to Chicago and Omaha, it uses up very little of his limited onboard battery power.
37:42You're up there alone, and there's no voices, and you're flying.
37:49And pretty soon, these communications that you're having almost have a voice of their own.
37:54And you can almost imagine the sound of the voice of the person sending you the message.
37:59They become very real, very animated messages.
38:02He's not chatty at all.
38:04He sits up there and eats his M&Ms and reads War and Peace and presses on.
38:11Fawcett is carrying the world's first autopilot for a balloon.
38:16In essence, it's a computer program that uses changes in altimeter readings to switch the burners on and off,
38:23keeping the balloon in level flight.
38:27It was designed by Bruce Comstock to let Fawcett catch some sleep.
38:35You can actually set this autopilot to flight a rosier within the required limits for instrument flight.
38:41And I don't think a lot of human beings can do that for hours on end, and this will do it forever.
38:46What it does is it fires the burners in a sequence determined by computer algorithms
38:51to maintain level flight of the balloon.
38:54If I want to change the altitude of the balloon, I will get on the burners myself and change the altitude
38:58and then reset the autopilot to keep it level.
39:01Steve took off over here in St. Louis, came on down across the Appalachians, Piedmonts, on out.
39:08He went across Bermuda early this morning in the dark, but he went dead across it.
39:16The control team can see from Fawcett's emails that he is using too much propane and should be dumping more ballast.
39:23Fawcett has chosen to fly higher and faster to get to the mid-Atlantic before the northerly winds disappear.
39:31But he is wasting precious fuel, reducing his chances of making it around the world.
39:37It only takes being a little bit too heavy, just a little bit too heavy, to really run the fuel consumption up.
39:47I bet my bottom dollar that he is heating at midday, and if he is heating at midday,
39:51he needs to look around that capsule and start pitching stuff out the hatch.
39:55Despite his efforts, Fawcett arrives at the mid-Atlantic fork too late.
40:00He has missed the northern track.
40:03The winds now pull him south, heading toward a band of potentially hostile countries.
40:09Do you have any telephone number for ATC in Libya?
40:13I don't want to touch Libya. I mean, I can't.
40:15No, I know that.
40:17Let me just explain to you what the official U.S. policy on Americans in Libya is.
40:22It's not legal currently for an American citizen to use it.
40:25The team gets nowhere through official channels.
40:28But there is a brotherhood of balloonists.
40:31Kemper turns to Branson for help.
40:33He knows that the Virgin balloon had been granted permission to overfly Libya.
40:37I could use your help on Libya.
40:39Right.
40:40Is there any communication at all between America and Libya at the moment?
40:44The President, I'm sure, and the U.S. government, you know, doesn't want to dance with, you know, Qaddafi.
40:50Is it nine? What time will they cross Libya?
40:53They're going to be there.
40:55If we can explain to Colonel Qaddafi in the spirit that Steve is doing this voyage,
40:59that he may give him permission to come through.
41:01I know Steve's extremely worried about flying over it if he doesn't get permission.
41:07Fawcett had already flown the Pacific in 1995, so by crossing the Atlantic now,
41:13he became the first balloonist ever to fly both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean solo.
41:19This is 90 degrees west, and over here, right about here is zero.
41:34That's a quarter of the way.
41:35So Steve's in here somewhere, so he almost can't avoid the first quarter.
41:41A detour around Libya will cost Fawcett a lot.
41:45Using his emergency satellite phone, he gives Branson a call.
41:48How are you feeling?
41:50Oh, uh, I feel well.
41:53Um, the only thing I know I'm going to solve these problems.
41:57Okay, well, we're in discussions with the Libyans.
42:00We have now formally requested permission for you to cross over,
42:05and we've asked for a response by 2.30 today.
42:08It is another 15 hours before they receive an answer.
42:13Libya denies permission to overfly.
42:16Richard Branson has just done a lot of work real hard trying to get that,
42:22and it didn't work, so that's the way it goes.
42:27On his present track, Fawcett is due to pass through Algeria, Niger, and Chad,
42:33and then enter Libya.
42:36So now I'm in central Algeria flying south at 24,000 feet,
42:42and I don't think I'm willing to risk going into Libyan airspace.
42:46I'd be forced to land, uh, short,
42:49and, uh, I'm told that Chad's a tough place to land,
42:53not only because of the terrain, but also there's landmines.
42:57Um, presumably not many roads.
43:01There's no roads anywhere.
43:03I haven't seen a road in hours of flying.
43:06In Chicago and Omaha, the team is worried.
43:09Lou Belonis has been running computer projections
43:12based on wind strength and direction reports received
43:15from satellite.
43:17He has spotted winds at 10,000 to 18,000 feet
43:20that just might allow the balloon to miss Libya completely.
43:30It's gonna be complicated, and it's gonna involve Lou, uh,
43:34to a great extent.
43:35Lou's gonna have to fly the balloon and just tell Steve,
43:38okay, go up, go down.
43:40Fawcett will have to fly low and slow to avoid Libya.
43:44At times, venting off some of his helium during the day
43:48and burning fuel to stay steady at precise altitudes.
43:52He will waste time and resources,
43:54further diminishing his chances of getting around the world.
43:59If the forecast is correct and we have high confidence in it,
44:03it's gonna take him right underneath Libya,
44:06and then we're gonna climb him back up to, uh, 24,000 feet,
44:09and that's gonna scoot him on through Saudi Arabia
44:12and eventually, uh, India-Pakistan area.
44:15And then once out in here, we have to recompute where he's going.
44:19Fawcett's speed drops to just 30 miles an hour.
44:23But his meteorologist predictions are correct.
44:26As he skirts Libya, he breaks his own world distance record of 5,436 miles.
44:33Then, out of the blue, the Libyans contact Branson.
44:37They've had a change of heart.
44:40We officially have permission from Libya.
44:43Excellent!
44:44Libya has gone public and said,
44:46yeah, we're giving him permission.
44:49Okay.
44:50And, uh, so we're gonna go with that.
44:53We'd, uh, just about given up hope on getting permission from Libya.
44:57But now, uh, permission has been granted and, uh, I'm flying fast.
45:02Fawcett changes his strategy.
45:05He burns and climbs to 27,000 feet.
45:09For the first time, his balloon enters the lower part of the jet stream.
45:13He's flying much higher than he had ever planned.
45:16His ground speed rises above 100 miles per hour.
45:23I've just entered Libyan airspace.
45:26I'm, uh, in the jet stream,
45:29traveling between, uh, 105 and 111 knots.
45:34Uh, so it's not gonna take long to cross over this southern tip of Libya.
45:38Uh, about one hour, uh, I think.
45:42Fawcett got through Libya unscathed.
45:45And he's entering Sudanese airspace.
45:48The Saudi Arabians have given permission,
45:50but Fawcett is still buzzed by two fighter planes over their territory.
45:55It's his fifth day in the air.
46:00Steve's quite tired, actually, also, because, uh,
46:05the heaters in the capsule haven't worked reliably,
46:08uh, especially when he was at higher altitudes,
46:10and that's made it very difficult for him to get enough sleep.
46:14Probably the longest sleep that I had was 30 minutes long.
46:17Most sleeps were more of the five-minute variety.
46:20I had a lot of air traffic control communications to do.
46:28Although his autopilot is working flawlessly,
46:31Fawcett is uncertain how much further he can go.
46:34He's tired and irritable.
46:38As he approaches the Pakistan border,
46:40he drops a bombshell via email.
46:43Hmm.
46:45Over Iran, along the Gulf of Oman,
46:47under Pakistan,
46:48ATC now considering landing near Calcutta or Daka tomorrow.
46:52We'll fly flight level 180 tonight.
46:55Cabin heater should light at that level.
46:58Need sleep.
46:59That's the real message.
47:01Fawcett, exhausted,
47:03and at 24,000 feet,
47:04begins to disagree with the controllers in Chicago.
47:08While he wants to put down in India,
47:10the ground crew feel that he should go further.
47:14I'm talking about various possibilities.
47:28Burma is one.
47:31Various places and other places in Southeast Asia are options.
47:36But possibly even Alaska as a long shot.
47:40How is it that all the technical wizardry
47:43craps out at the wrong time?
47:45All communications go down.
47:47Fawcett is out of contact.
47:49And there's a new concern.
47:51The present track will sweep the balloon into the high Himalayas.
47:56Several of the mountains here are 20,000 feet,
47:5922 up to 27,000 feet.
48:01In a gas balloon at high speeds
48:04with mountains around you,
48:06turbulence might be more than just a scare factor.
48:09It just might slam him into a mountain,
48:13or it could slam him into the ground.
48:15Fawcett is unaware that his path is about to veer north.
48:19Communications are down.
48:21There's no way of telling him.
48:23To add to his woes,
48:24thunderstorms now lie dead ahead.
48:27You don't play with thunderstorms.
48:29A balloon is a very, very fragile piece of equipment
48:32compared with thunderstorms.
48:34You land.
48:35He's flailing around India now on his own.
48:38We haven't heard from him since...
48:40For an hour.
48:41For an hour.
48:42There's something wrong with his handset at the other end.
48:44That was air traffic control in Calcutta.
48:46They have had no information about the balloon since 1324.
48:50My assumption, and our team's assumption is,
48:53is that he'll be landing...
48:54It works!
48:55I normally just got a message.
48:56We got a message from Steve.
48:58Plan to land east coast of India, south of Calcutta.
49:02Fawcett starts to come down, but not to land yet.
49:07He's determined to break the world duration record for a balloon.
49:11This means staying up until the middle of the day,
49:14flying right through thunderstorms.
49:18Once we saw the storms, we advised him to land at dawn.
49:22Steve doesn't always take advice well,
49:26particularly when you're sort of five or six hours off duration record.
49:30Can you tell him that there are lots of power lines in the air?
49:34He's slowed down quite a bit.
49:37Okay.
49:38It will be six more hours before the duration record is broken.
49:43Message from Steve.
49:44First line of thunderstorms didn't kill me.
49:491,000 feet or 700 above ground level.
49:52He wouldn't have been able to see the thunderstorms.
49:55He probably didn't have much visibility at all,
49:57but he sat there and we ticked off the hours.
50:0410, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
50:13Now.
50:14Yeah.
50:19Great job.
50:20Fawcett now prepares to land.
50:22He's been flying for six days and one hour,
50:24the longest any man balloon has ever stayed in the air.
50:29Descend in 15 minutes.
50:34The wind speeds on the ground were 13 knots.
50:37This isn't too bad.
50:38I mean, we do balloon landings in 13 knots.
50:41That's not a big problem.
50:43But these round-the-world balloons are bigger balloon systems
50:48and really don't control themselves as well.
50:51After six days, landing a balloon on your own is not an easy matter.
50:57Despite his best efforts, the flight isn't over yet.
51:06His third attempt to land is no more successful than the previous two.
51:20In the tanks remains a large quantity of flammable propane.
51:29He begins to wonder if he'll ever get it down.
51:33You control the descending in altitude with a gas valve letting out helium.
51:39And the gas valve in this balloon was designed for a balloon one-third the size.
51:43Basically, I didn't have the fineness of control that I should have in this kind of balloon.
51:53And sure enough, I botched the landing.
51:58This is very impressive.
52:03They had this balloon strung up in a tree.
52:07All that afternoon, I worked with the villagers.
52:10We were trying to figure out how to get this balloon out of the tree
52:13before somebody came with a camera to get a picture of this.
52:16It was a safe landing.
52:18Congratulations to all of Chicago Control.
52:21Steve Fawcett had failed to make it around the world.
52:30But he had flown further and for a longer time than any balloonist in history.
52:36He'd stayed aloft for six days, two hours and 54 minutes
52:40and flown halfway around the Earth.
52:43I think it went better than I expected it to.
52:50I got to make a very long flight.
52:52It was measured out at 9,672 miles,
52:56which exceeded the distance record by over 4,000 miles.
53:02All the teams will be back with new balloons in January 1998.
53:07And this time, there are at least six crews getting ready.
53:12The first team may be the Global Hilton,
53:15piloted by record-setting balloonist Richard Abruzzo,
53:19and Dick Rutan, the only man to have flown around the world
53:23non-stop in an unrefueled aircraft.
53:26It will be a formidable team indeed.
53:30Who's up for the challenge this season?
53:42And what spells success or failure in the competitive world of ballooning?
53:47Take flight at www.pbs.org.
53:52To order this show for $19.95 plus shipping and handling, call 1-800-255-9424.
54:12And to learn more about how science can solve the mysteries of our world,
54:17ask about our many other NOVA videos.
54:21How nervous are you?
54:23You're pretty nervous.
54:24Perhaps we've all underestimated the difficulty of this task.
54:27He's going for the coast of Europe.
54:32Ground speed 65 knots. Hot damn!
54:34There's a possibility of a rough landing, and we do have 3,000 kilos of propane on board.
54:40Of propane on board.
55:10NOVA is a production of WGBH Boston.
55:18Major funding for NOVA is provided by the Park Foundation,
55:23dedicated to education and quality television.
55:28And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
55:40This is PBS.
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