science · 03 July 1987 · 37 years ago
In 1987, British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand became the first to cross the Atlantic by hot-air balloon, named Virgin Atlantic Flyer. They jumped into the sea as their craft went down off the Scottish coast. They travelled a distance of 2,900 miles from from Sugarloaf Mountain, Maine, in 33 hours to set a new record for hot air ballooning. At the time, the balloon was the largest ever flown having 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity. Three years later, they crossed the Pacific in another balloon from Japan to Arctic Canada, a distance of 6,700 miles, breaking all existing records with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour.
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