Daredevil Indian tycoon claims world balloon altitude record
Daredevil Indian tycoon claims world balloon altitude record
Salil Panchal Agence France Presse/Mumbai
Daredevil 67-year-old Indian tycoon Vijaypat Singhania claimed a new world altitude record Saturday by flying a hot air balloon to the edge of space, climbing nearly 70,000 feet (21,200 meters).
The amateur aviator, whose record must still be ratified, lifted off at dawn from a racecourse in the western Indian city of Mumbai serenaded by a band.
Singhania, who used one of the largest nylon balloons ever built, said he wanted "to do the country proud."
The hot-air balloon enthusiast had dubbed his flight in which he flew housed in a pressurized capsule through sub-zero temperatures "MI 70K -- Mission Impossible 70,000."
Singhania was aiming to beat the previous high altitude record of 64,997 feet (19,811 metres) set by Swedish aviator Per Lindstrand in 1988 over the U.S. state of Texas.
Some 17 aviators have previously tried to eclipse Lindstrand's record.
The technical team at the Mumbai racecourse monitoring Singhania's five-hour flight said his balloon touched 69,852 feet (21,167 metres).
On reaching the level, Gautam Singania, the industrialist's son, beamed proudly and said: "Gentlemen, we've got the world record."
"The flight went like clockwork," said British aviation expert Colin Prescot, who helped to design the 158-foot (48-meter) high balloon -- equivalent to an 18-storey building -- which had a capacity of 1.6 million cubic feet (45,300 cubic metres).
The Indian aviator opted to stop short of his 70,000 foot target when his red-yellow-and-blue-check balloon hit a cold air pocket.
The technical team told him to play it safe and descend as he had set the new record.
Singhania, who heads upmarket Indian clothing company Raymond Ltd, touched down in Sinnar township, some 250 kilometers from Mumbai.
The aviator, who has notched up more than 5,000 hours of flying experience, is the lone Indian to have won the aviation sports gold medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI).
Singhania who has made other hot air balloon flights but none so high got the medal for a 24-day around the world plane race covering 34,000 kilometers (21,250 miles).
Details of his latest feat will be submitted to the FAI, said Prescot who was watched the flight along with balloon co-designer Andy Elson, another Briton.
Verification of the world record claim could take up to two months, Prescot told AFP.
str-pmc/mtp
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GetAFP 2.10 -- NOV 26, 2005 16:09:37