Epic Flights

for the Record Books

BY MARK SULLIVAN

n a hot August

Oweekend morning in 1978, a small plane landed at Albuquerque International Airport. An enthusiastic posse of friends and family and a phalanx of reporters stood on the tarmac – you could do that back then -- ready to greet

Sid Cutter, the newly-crowned National

Hot Air Balloon Champion. At the same moment, three businessmen from Albuquerque huddled in a homebuilt fi berglass gondola underneath a gigantic silver and black gas balloon. In just a few days, they would make history and become international heroes, the fi rst pilots to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon, setting several world records in the process. Their attempt succeeded where more than a dozen had failed, with fi ve people dying in the attempt.

It was one of the headiest, most historic weeks in the history of ballooning, and Albuquerque was right at the center of it. The Albuquerque International

Balloon Fiesta –only in its seventh year – even then was the town square of world ballooning, getting national media coverage and attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. No wonder the Duke City was rapidly becoming known as the “Balloon Capital of the World.”

The media frenzy surrounding the success of the Double Eagle II transatlantic fl ight only enhanced Albuquerque’s reputation as ballooning’s Mecca. In a world starved for good news, the arrival of the balloon and its pilots, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, in France was the lead story on all the national newscasts and made the covers of the major news magazines. Their Albuquerque connection didn’t escape notice. For their coverage, one of the TV stations tracked down Sid Cutter and his colleague, the world hot-air champion Paul Woessner, at the airport. Sid’s comment? “Maybe they’ll fi gure out that New Mexico is actually in the Union.” Abruzzo and Anderson – fl ying together and separately – are still two of the most renowned of Albuquerque’s great ballooning adventurers. They almost died in an epic storm during their fi rst attempt to cross the Atlantic, in 1977, before fi nally making it to Europe the next year. Both went on to achieve other great fi rsts: Anderson, with his son Kris, completed the fi rst non-stop transcontinental balloon fl ight, and Abruzzo, with Newman, Ron Clark, and Rocky Aoki, were the fi rst persons to cross the Pacifi c by balloon. Anderson made the fi rst serious attempts to fl y non-stop around the world, but the technology at the time was not far enough advanced to support his ambition and dreams. Both Anderson and Abruzzo were to die in separate aviation accidents in

Above: Double Eagle II over the Atlantic. Photo courtesy of the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum

PHOTO: KIM VESELY

the 1980s; their legacy lives on in the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.

Other Albuquerque pilots were setting records of their own. Richard Abruzzo and Troy Bradley are among those holding multiple world records for distance and duration in various types of balloons. As far back as 1977, Sue Hazlett fl ew to 28,258 ft (8,613 m) to establish a women’s altitude record. This was bested, about two years later, by the late Carol Rymer Davis, who for many years held the absolute women’s hot air balloon altitude record at 31,500 feet (9,601m), and at one time held all three records — altitude, distance, and duration — for 42,000 cu. ft. hot air balloons. Arguably the most decorated female balloonist of all time, Davis is the only woman to date to win (with Richard Abruzzo) the world’s oldest air race, the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett. She was also the recipient of several prizes awarded for performance in any form of aviation (not just ballooning).

The tradition of spanning oceans and setting records continued into the 21st century with the Two Eagles trans-Pacifi c crossing from Japan to Baja California.

On January 24, 2015 (January 25 in Japan), Albuquerque’s Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev launched their PHOTO: TAMI BRADLEY 350,000 cu. ft (10,000 cubic meter) balloon, Two Eagles, at Saga, Japan. After travelling 6,646 miles (10,696 km) in six days and 16 hours, exhausted and triumphant, they landed just off the coast of Baja California, near Las Pozas. Their fl ight established new absolute distance and duration records for straight gas balloons. What motivates these ballooning over-achievers – the record-setters, the teams who span oceans and continents, the Gordon Bennett and America’s Challenge champions – to pursue these dreams? Bradley and Tiukhtyaev, like many others, talked about the desire to test their capabilities and to push themselves farther than they or any other person has gone before. Most cite the satisfaction of She was also the recipient of several prizes awarded carefully planning their fl ights, and of bringing together the best teams in the world to achieve their goals. And there are other, more personal motivations. Carol Davis, who like many balloonists had a fear of heights, said she wanted to learn about fl ying high. And then she added, “and to be in a record book with Lindbergh.”

person has gone before. Most cite the satisfaction of carefully planning their fl ights, and of bringing together the best teams in the world to achieve their goals. And

Top left: Abruzzo and Anderson snatching a nap late in the Double Eagle II fl ight. Photo courtesy of the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum Top right: Carol Rymer Davis (right) at the 2007 America’s Challenge. Center: Two Eagles pilots Troy Bradley and Leonid Tiukhtyaev