The Gordon Bennett Balloon Race has started last night from Vichy in France. 19 balloon crews took off with balloons filled with hydrogen and the winner will be the pilot who travels the furthest.
The best will stay in the air 70 hours or more open to the elements in a wicker basket. Balloons can only travel where the wind takes them and nobody knows where they will land, but conditions look as though they will travel east and may end up anywhere from Poland to Romania.
Gordon Bennett published The New York Herald in Paris and offered a magnificent trophy in 1906 to the winner and sat back waiting for the stories to roll in which would sell his newspaper – just as the aeroplanes and motor cars had done in the similar Gordon Bennett Races.
You can watch the progress of the different teams on a live-tracking page HERE. The picture shows Charles Rolls ascending from Paris in 1906 and he landed in northern England 26 hours later in third place.
SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE.
The balloons have been flying for 30+ hours and leader ‘Swiss 2’ has travelled 870 km mostly at 15,000 feet breathing oxygen in freezing temperatures and are just crossing the coastline of Croatia. The other balloons elected to fly at lower altitudes and headed south east towards Marseille. Four have landed before the coast and the remaining eleven balloons are currently drifting across the sea towards Corsica and Sardinia.
Weather conditions, air traffic control and remaining sand ballast dictate their options but some may attempt landings in the unstable heat of the day on those islands. Not easy! Their retrieve drivers are waiting in Italy for instructions.
You can watch the balloons’ progress on the live tracking page and also get a taste of what the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race involves by seeing pictures of the launch HERE, a video of champion Vincent Leys ‘weighing off’ his balloon at the start HERE, and my commentary on the race HERE.