September 1, 2003. Copyright 2003. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

British bid to break balloon altitude record

LONDON, September 1, Graphic News: Two British balloonists who will attempt to ascend 132,000ft (40,000m), up to the edge of space, say their flight will begin from Cornwall on Tuesday. 

Originally planned for summer 2002, the voyage will technically make Britain the third nation to send a manned mission into space after Russia and the U.S. 

Strapped into seats on the open flight deck of the worldÕs biggest balloon, Andy Elson and Colin Prescot will rely on oxygen-filled spacesuits to prevent their blood from boiling and their lungs from collapsing during their record-breaking attempt.

At St Ives, Cornwall, where they will board the Triton -- a prototype trimaran warship -- for the take-off, Prescot said: ÒThis is BritainÕs first manned mission into space. ItÕs every schoolboyÕs dream to do something like this and thereÕs still a lot of schoolboy in me.Ó

The hot air balloon QinetiQ1 was designed in partnership with Qinetiq, a former Ministry of Defence research agency. It is made from nine acres (3.6 hectares) of polyethylene, the same thickness as a household freezer bag, and fully inflated it will be as tall as the Empire State Building. The balloon has a capacity of 44 billion cubic feet (1.2 billion cubic metres) of helium and will be visible from Britain, Ireland and France.

Elson, 49, from Wells, Somerset, and Prescot, 53, from Stockbridge, Hants, are professional commercial balloon pilots. Prescot runs Flying Pictures, the largest operator of hot-air balloons in the world.

The two pilots worked closely with Zvezda, the spacesuit manufacturer that has designed all the suits for the Russian space programme over the past 50 years and those currently worn on the International Space Station.

ÒEven if your oxygen supply cuts off, itÕs amazing how long the suits will keep you alive. ItÕs a very long time -- 20 minutes, 25 minutes,Ó says Prescot. He estimates that after take-off they will be airborne for 10 hours. They each have nine hours of oxygen, as well as an emergency three-hour supply.

The pilots had originally planned on buying a balloon from an American firm, but the company got cold feet, fearing that the pilotsÕ relatives would sue if the balloon failed. There was no other option than for Elson to design and build the worldÕs largest manned helium balloon himself. Elson is not without experience -- he has designed most of the balloons used in round-the-world attempts of recent years. 

ÒIÕve been analysing all the hot-air-balloon flights that we have information about over the past 40 years, and they have roughly a 10 percent failure rate. Which is still quite high if youÕre sat at the bottom of the balloon,Ó he said. ÒI looked in detail at the various things that make a balloon fail and IÕve tried to design one that has as few of those failure points as possible.Ó

Prescot and Elson are no strangers to record attempts. Elson piloted the first balloon flight over Mount Everest, and Prescot holds the record for the longest balloon flight in the UK. The record they are now trying to break -- an altitude of 13,740ft (34,122m) -- was set in 1961 by two U.S. Navy officers, Malcolm Ross and Vic Prather, as part of the American space programme.
/ENDS

Source: Qinetiq