SYDNEY, July 2: US millionaire Steve Fossett became the first solo balloonist to circle the globe nonstop, sailing into the record books high above the clouds off Australia’s southern coast on Tuesday.
“It’s an enormous relief and satisfaction,” the 58-year-old adventurer said from the balloon, his remarks piped back to a news conference held by jubilant members of his US control centre in St. Louis, Missouri.
“It’s been a long trip and I’m really glad to get across,” he added.
Fossett, who had failed to make a circumnavigation in five previous and often danger-filled tries, snared one of manned flight’s last earthly records at about 1340 GMT on Tuesday. He crossed the finish line when he passed 117 degrees east longitude, the same line where he began his trip 13-1/2 days earlier from far western Australia.
When he achieved the record after sailing nearly 31,380 kms he was under a canopy of stars, he reported, with clouds covering the ocean below.
His next challenge was to steer the balloon northeasterly for a landing in Australia, a final leg that may take several hours. A likely landing spot was on Australia’s desolate outback Nullarbor Plain early on Wednesday Australian time.
“You can’t do very much celebrating,” an exhausted Fossett said, citing the always dangerous landing of his giant balloon that lay ahead.
“I do have a couple of bottles of Bud Light (brewed by the balloon’s sponsor), but there’s no one to drink it with,” he said to laughter from colleagues in St. Louis.
On Monday, the Colorado-based former Chicago markets trader set a top speed of 300 kmh over the Indian Ocean and had hoped to land back in western Australia, but the winds pushed him south.
The Nullarbor is a limestone plateau bordered by the Great Australian Bight to the south, with cliffs plunging into the shark-infested Southern Ocean, and its northern perimeter by the Great Victoria Desert of central outback Australia.
Australia’s transnational highway which runs along the Nullarbor is one of the world’s great long distance road trips, with endless bitumen disappearing into an outback heat haze and no water or petrol for hundreds of kilometres.
When Fossett lands, his hi-tech balloon is expected to disintegrate, with only the gondola surviving the descent.—Reuters