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On the 9th of March, 1999, eight days into their flight, Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard were approaching Myanmar's air space. They had the following exchange with an air-traffic controller:
Air traffic control: Hotel Bravo-Bravo Romeo Alpha, what is your departure point and destination?
Brian Jones: Departure point, Château d'Oex, Switzerland. Destination, somewhere in northern Africa.
Air traffic control, after several seconds' silence: If you're going from Switzerland to northern Africa, what in hell are you doing in Myanmar?
Twelve days later the Breitling Orbiter 3 made a hard but safe landing in the Egyptian desert. Their successful circumnavigation, the first, put Piccard and Jones into the record books for distance (25,361 miles) and duration (477.47 hours aloft). Around the World in 20 Days tells the story of their flight, and the obstacles--both natural and manmade--they had to overcome. Struggling to get the balloon back into the jet stream when they had strayed too far south was one thing, but negotiating with dozens of countries for the right to fly in their air space was just as challenging. Even choosing a landing site was problematic: "Mali is mainly desert, and has lions, leopards etc.," while the Nigerians were hesitant, the Libyans wouldn't allow rescue planes to be brought in, and Egypt gave the balloon permission to overfly its borders but not to land. On the ground, the team's support system spelled out the situation to the Egyptians: "Listen--the balloon is running out of fuel. If the pilot doesn't have permission to land, he'll have to declare a full emergency, and you'll be obliged by the international rules to deal with it." The Egyptian controller replied, "In that case, I give you permission."
Readers looking for edge-of-their-seats adventure may be disappointed; the authors tend to downplay the amount of danger they were often in. Indeed, the good humor in the cramped gondola camouflaged much of the scrambling taking place on the ground as the support crews worked to ensure the safety of the pilots. Sometimes the narrative, told in alternating passages by Piccard and Jones, descends into technical detail about flight levels, wind speeds, and directions. ("The required flight level will be between 260 and 280, with tracks between 093 and 098, and speed around 35 knots until 00:00 Z.") More often, however, the book glides along as smoothly as these two men who, in Piccard's words, "took off as pilots, flew as friends, and landed as brothers." --Sunny Delaney
From Publishers Weekly
For 20 days in March 1999, Piccard and Jones tempted fate, the jet stream and countless surly, foreign air-traffic controllers in a successful attempt to be the first to float a giant balloon nonstop around the world. Hyped as aviation's last great challenge and fueled by a million-dollar purse from Budweiser, the quest attracted the attention of millionaires such as Richard Branson of Virgin and David Liniger of Re/Max International. But Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist, brought an adventurous pedigree as well as deep pockets to the undertaking: his grandfather was the first person to reach the stratosphere in a balloon, and his father set the record for the deepest dive in a submarine. Piccard and Jones, the project manager, take turns telling the story of their flight from Switzerland to Egypt the hard way. If the notion of flying around the world in a balloon has a romantic allure, the day-to-day reality consisted primarily of pirouetting slowly at the behest of the wind while remaining in constant contact with mission control on flight speed and ideal altitude. Technical problems cropped up, and readers will sympathize with the fear of flying an uncharted path across 8000 miles of Pacific Ocean. But mostly the crew in the cramped, often freezing gondola seems to have been closer to being severely inconvenienced than to being harmed. This may be a reflection on the thoroughness of their team's planning and skill, but it makes for some surprisingly dull reading. 24 pages of photos not seen by PW. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This is the tale of two courageous men who last spring were the first to traverse the world, nonstop, in a balloon Starting from Switzerland, they journeyed 29,000 miles in 20 days, concluding their experience in the Egyptian desert. Their adventure was often perilous, with each moment captured by on-board photos and diary excerpts. Without a doubt, this is an interesting story that takes the reader on a roller-coaster adventure of emotional highs and lows. Piccard is a Swiss doctor whose grandfather was the first balloonist to reach the stratosphere and whose father reached the deepest point of the ocean in a bathyscaph. Jones served as the project manager and pilot and was responsible for much of the design of the balloon, "Breitling Orbiter 3." Armchair travel enthusiasts will enjoy the book. Recommended for all public libraries. (Photos not seen.)ALarry Little, Penticton P.L., BC Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Louise Jarvis
The book reveals the alternately fierce and polite but always insular world of ballooning ... with inflated egos and rivalrous bickering to match climbing's most obnoxious peak baggers.
Book Description
"Dr. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones sailed into history today when their Breitling Orbiter 3 completed the first nonstop balloon trip around the world - a goal many had sought but never achieved." -The New York Times, March 21, 1999 On Monday, March 1st, 1999, adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took off in the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon from Switzerland and landed 20 perilous days and 29,000 miles later in Egypt.Here is their firsthand account of the dangerous and exciting first-ever round-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon.In gripping, nail-biting detail, pilots Piccard and Jones recount the many unexpected challenges and near-disasters they faced, including a harrowing six-and-a-half-day trip across the Pacific.With life vests ever-ready by their sides, the pilots worked together with an inspiring sense of mission and unity, graced by what they describe as an invisible hand that guided them throughout their fantastic journey.Twenty-four pages of stunning full-color photographs and diary excerpts from the trip bring to life the moment-to-moment drama of this history-making flight.
About the Author
Dr. Betrand Piccard (Switzerland, a medical doctor and psychiatrist, is a free-flight pioneer from a famous family of adventurists. His grandfather August Piccard was the first man to reach the stratosphere in a balloon; his father, Jacques Piccard, set the record for the deepest submarine dive. Brian Jones (England) was the flight's project manager as well as pilot and was responsible for much of the design of the balloon.
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