The Balloon Flight

Records are meant to be broken.

Congratulations to Troy Bradley and his co-pilot for a terrific balloon ride across the Pacific. What an accomplishment!  What an adventure!

And we could follow it all the way thanks to the internet, satellites and much more precise weather observations.

Back in 1978, it was my job to follow the flight of the Double Eagle II from Presque Isle, Maine to Miserey, France.

It was a lot different back then.  

Truthfully, after the balloon left the launch site and headed out to sea…it was an educated guess as to where the balloon was…until it was eyeballed again in daylight over Ireland.

Those were 5 days of conjecture, wishing and hoping.  There were no cell phones, there was no satellite tracking device, it was just the scientific knowledge of the Anderson/Abruzzo/Newman team that allowed us reporters and the crew members, to have an inkling of where the adventurers were.

Once in a while…maybe 2 or 3 times…a jetliner passing over the balloon would radio back that they’d had contact and it was still flying.  That was just about it.

When it became quite evident that the flight had a good chance of succeeding, most of the families and a number of reporters got on a TWA 747 at Boston airport and headed for London.  Sometime during that flight radio contact was made with the pilots and there were brief conversations.

It wasn’t until the balloon floated near the white cliffs of Dover, as it descended toward the farm fields near Deauville, France that we knew it was a success,,,if they could land.

They did!

I recall standing at a phone booth at the Deauville airport, where a number of us arrived via charter plane that I had charged to my American Express.   I was trying to figure out how to call the NBC News bureau in France – but didn’t have the faintest idea how to work the phone. 

A helpful chap made the call for me.

Now, communications is instantaneous, cellphone, smart phone, satellite, satellite phone, twitter, facebook, etc.  Anytime of the day or night, the balloon is sending back position reports.

How terrific is that!

Congratulations to the pilots on a terrific feat – I’m happy I played a little part in the Double Eagle adventures, and really happy that Albuquerque is still the balloon capital of the world!

Up, up and away!!!!

The Double Eagle Book

To Big Roger

You just helped make it much better.  

Larry Newman Piloto

To Roger,

Thanks for your help and participation in the flight.   

Ben Abruzzo

The only way to cover this correctly is to go on the next flight.

Maxie Anderson