Double Eagle II
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Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
The flight, the fourteenth known attempt, was the culmination of more than a century of attempts to cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Some of the people who had attempted it were never found. Two British adventurers, Don Cameron and Christopher Davey, came extremely close earlier on 30 July 1978, using a Roziere balloon named Zanussi, and had planned another attempt, calling it off when the Double Eagle II succeeded.
It can be regarded as a successful crossing at the point that the Double Eagle II crossed the Irish coast, on the evening of 16 August, an event that Shannon Airport notified the crew about when it happened. Newman had intended to hang glide from the balloon to a landing, while Anderson and Abruzzo continued to fly, however, the hang-glider had to be dropped as ballast earlier on 16 August.
While flying over France, they heard by radio that authorities had closed Le Bourget Airfield, where Charles Lindbergh had landed. The crew declined the offer as it would be too risky (crew and citizens below) now to pass over the suburbs of Paris. They were also running out of ballast. They landed in a field of barley, owned by Roger and Rachel Coquerel, in Miserey, 60 miles (96 km) northwest of Paris. Television images showed a highway nearby, its shoulders and outer lanes crowded with stopped cars, people sweeping across the farm field to the landing spot. The gondola was protected, but most of the logs and charts were swiped by souvenir hunters.
At least one radio report started out with the song, "Up, Up and Away" by The Fifth Dimension.
Larry Newman won a draw among the three to sleep in the same bed at the United States embassy that Charles Lindbergh slept in. Cameron and Davey, the British balloonists, feted the trio at a party that included a balloon shaped like the Double Eagle II.
A full chronicle of the voyage can be found in the December 1978 issue of National Geographic.
The Double Eagle II Airport is named for the balloon.
[edit] Stats
- Builder: Ed Yost; Tea, South Dakota
- Balloon: 160,000 ft³ (4,500 m³) helium-filled; 112 ft (34 m) high, 65 ft (20 m) in diameter
- Gondola: 15 x 7 x 4 1/2 foot; name "The Spirit of Albuquerque"
- Equipment: 1 VHF radio, 2 single sideband HF radios, 1 ADF beacon transmitter, 1 amateur band radio, 1 maritime radio, hookup to Nimbus 6 satellite.
- Total weight: 760 lb (345 kg) empty
- Take-off: 8:43 p.m. EDT - 11 August (00:42 UTC 12 August)
- Landing: 7:49 p.m. Western Europe Summer Time - 17 August (17:48 UTC 17 August)
- Total flight time: 137 hours, 6 minutes
- Lowest altitude: 3,500 feet - 13 August
- Highest altitude: 24,950 feet - 16 August
- Total distance: 4,988 kilometers (3,107.61 miles)
[edit] Previous attempts
Except for one attempt in 1958 from the Canary Islands, all left from somewhere in North America.
The first recorded attempt in 1873 traveled only 45 miles. The Free Life (attempt #4) in 1970 vanished in mid-Atlantic. Light Heart (attempt #6) in 1974 disappeared after being sighted over the Atlantic. The Spirit of Man (attempt #7) in 1974 suffered a balloon burst over the New Jersey coast, killing the rider.
The furthest reach yet was achieved by Yost in Silver Fox (attempt #10) in 1976, ditching east of the Azores as the wind carried him in the general direction of Western Sahara. The Double Eagle I (attempt #11), in 1977, ditched west of Iceland, having looped to the east of Greenland.
The Zanussi (attempt #13) in 1978, by Cameron and Davey, came closest to success, ditching 110 miles off of France after the gas bag ripped.
Total death toll is five, including those on the two flights that vanished.
- Source of previous attempt information: National Geographic article, December 1978.
