Tonight on Nova, is it possible to fly around the world in a balloon?
These men think so.
It is going to be a great adventure.
But they know it won't be easy.
We had minor problems.
But these problems...
Minor problems that nearly killed me.
Yes.
They each have their role and their reasons.
I'm not doing it for the pleasure of it.
In my opinion, it's going to be hell.
And I'm going around the world because I want to be the first man that's ever done it.
But like it or not, they're in it together.
Three men and a balloon.
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To fly a balloon around the world has been no more than a dream.
The farthest any balloon has ever flown is less than five and a half thousand miles.
is less than five and a half thousand miles.
But now, a self-made British billionaire is about to take on this extraordinary challenge.
Richard Branson is chairman of the Virgin Airline and Entertainment Empire.
Basking in the glare of the cameras, this unconventional hero of British business,
accompanied by balloon designer Per Lindstrand, has come to London to make an announcement.
So why are we making this British attempt to be the first to circumnavigate the globe non-stop by balloon?
Well, as I speak, there are other teams busily preparing themselves to be the first.
One of these competitors is Chicago businessman Steve Fawcett.
In 1995, he broke all distance records, flying nearly five and a half thousand miles across the Pacific.
Another American team called Odyssey also hoped to fly around the world in a giant weather balloon.
These balloons have flown unmanned for many years to investigate the upper atmosphere.
A more serious rival was Dutchman Henk Brink.
In 1986, he and two other pilots flew the Atlantic, making a rough landing in Holland.
Brink was shaken, but undeterred.
He spent the last four years preparing to fly around the world, and his balloon is virtually complete.
Meanwhile, Branson and Lindstrand's balloon is no more than a virtual reality.
Their launch date is November 1995, but in July, their balloon is still on the drawing board, the route undecided.
A balloon has no real choice as to which route it takes, and so we just have to get permissions from about 97 countries to be able to cross them.
And if we miss out one, we're just going to have to radio in and say we've got no choice.
We've learned a lot from the transatlantic and trans-pacific balloon crossings,
which makes us think we now have the technology to go around the world.
In 1987, Branson and Lindstrand flew across the Atlantic in the largest hot air balloon ever.
At liftoff, two giant canisters of propane gas fell off.
If they'd ruptured, the balloon, pilots, and launch pad would have been incinerated.
It was the first time a balloon climbed into the jet stream, which flows at 30,000 feet, high above local weather patterns.
Although it seemed to the pilots that they were floating in still air, the balloon was actually traveling at nearly 300 miles per hour.
They crossed the Atlantic in just 30 hours, more than tripling the distance record for a hot air balloon.
The balloon landed hard in Ireland, but rose back into the air. All communications were destroyed.
Finally, they ditched the balloon and jumped into the freezing waters off Scotland.
Both men nearly drowned. Others might have taken this as a warning.
But four years later, they decided to fly across the Pacific in an even larger balloon.
Again, the flight was far from easy. At one point, it looked like they'd have to ditch in mid-Pacific, thousands of miles from help.
Onboard cameras revealed that malfunctioning bolts had jettisoned half their fuel, taking them to the brink of disaster.
We're at one hell of an angle. I can't remember it being like this last time. It almost makes you feel it. You're going to go over it.
Somehow, they made it across the Pacific in just two days, landing on a lake in northern Canada. This time, they nearly froze to death.
You cannot really test everything. Something must be left to the actual flight, and both of them had minor problems.
Minor problems that nearly killed you?
Yes. Are you speaking to the engineer here? Anything that doesn't hurt you is a minor problem after all.
Ever since he crossed the Atlantic by speedboat in 1986, all Branson's adventures have been followed by the media.
Usually, when businessmen say they'd kill themselves for publicity, they're speaking metaphorically.
But for Branson, though the personal risks are high, the financial danger is minimal.
As fortunate with all these sorts of adventures, it shouldn't actually cost us anything at the end of the day.
Literally nothing?
Yeah, literally nothing. With the Virgin Atlantic challenge boat, the day after we did the crossing, we sold it to an Arab for the same price the total trip cost.
Classic FM. Obvious question first of all. Why?
It hasn't been done before. We think that from everything we learn, we now have the technology for it to be done.
It's a very exciting thing to do because you're pushing technology and yourself to the limit on what is perhaps the last real aviation challenge left.
A challenge that men made of the right stuff simply can't resist.
Both Lindstrand and Branson had been inspired by the daredevil exploits of an American balloonist and test pilot, Joe Kittinger.
Kittinger was the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1984 when he was 54 years old.
Joe, welcome to Europe, as I say.
I'm happy to be here.
How's the foot?
I think it's broken.
Ten years later, he still dreams of being the first to fly around the world.
I've actually been working on flying around the world for some over 35 years.
I started in the Air Force back in 1979 coming up with the information that I needed in meteorology to get around the world.
And I'm still working actively on trying to go around the world.
Back in 1960, Kittinger leaped into the history books when he jumped from a balloon at 103,000 feet, the highest jump in history.
He remains the only man ever to have broken the sound barrier with his body alone.
The achievement for flying around the world nonstop in a balloon, first of all, a balloon is man's oldest aerial vehicle.
And it is the last great challenge in aeronautics.
Kittinger is a consultant of Branson's Virgin Airship and Balloon Company.
He was brought in to advise the around-the-world flight.
If I was asked to pick the team that would make it around the world in a balloon, I would pick Per Lindstrom's team.
It's going to be tough to find anybody that's any more talented engineering-wise, pilot-wise than Per Lindstrom.
Once a pilot in the Swedish Air Force, Lindstrom runs a balloon manufacturing company and holds the altitude record for hot air balloon.
Since hot air is lighter than cold air, air blasted with heat from a burner and held in an enclosed bag will rise.
To stay up, the air inside the balloon has to be about 100 degrees hotter than the atmosphere outside.
In 1783, a crude hot air balloon fueled by burning wool took off in Paris with a rooster, a sheep, and a duck on board.
Two months later, Francois Pilatra de Rosier flew for 20 minutes in a hot air balloon made of paper.
Two years later, he designed another balloon, this time using the newly discovered lighter-than-air gas called hydrogen.
He used an open fire to heat the air, which rose up a cylinder and warmed the hydrogen, making it even lighter.
But hydrogen is highly flammable, and the balloon exploded soon after takeoff.
De Rosier, the first man to fly, was the first man to die in an air disaster.
From then on, it was considered too dangerous to mix hydrogen in hot air, so balloons used solely hydrogen and later the safer helium gas for lift.
A balloon sinks at night when the temperature drops, rising again when the sun comes up.
To make it around the world, Lindstrom must stay up around 30,000 feet.
He plans to use propane burners to heat up helium at night, giving extra lift to replace the sun's energy.
In fact, Lindstrom has returned to the de Rosier design.
A large sphere of helium above is warmed by a separate cone-shaped bag of hot air below.
The balloon's fabric must keep helium from escaping and also provide a temperature barrier,
reflecting solar heat by day and holding on to as much warmth as possible at night.
But earlier fabrics had problems.
During the Pacific attempt in 1989, their first balloon fell apart on the launch pad, like used kitchen foil.
Choosing the right fabric this time would be vital.
Melonex, a thin reflective plastic used to keep corn chips fresh, was found to be ideal.
But they'd need a lot of it.
The Lindstrom balloon will be as tall as the Statue of Liberty and capable of flying eight miles high.
To launch this gigantic balloon, Lindstrom needs 48 hours of calm weather.
He scours England to find the perfect combination of still ground conditions with southeasterly winds high above, all in the right season.
The jet stream is only strong enough to carry a balloon around the world between November and February.
When you get down to the exactness of getting the right weather, it didn't look that good.
And in fact, it would reduce the possibilities to one single day's launch during the entire period of January.
At that point, one gets slightly nervous, of course.
Lindstrom has opted to build a capsule similar to the ones he used for his earlier flights.
The upper part of the spun aluminum shell will become the flight deck.
A lower chamber will be used for food and equipment storage.
And that other essential, the toilet.
This is a spacecraft, just as much as a space shuttle.
It's self-contained, it needs electricity, it needs life support systems, it needs navigation, communications.
It's a self-contained spacecraft.
It's down on air, but it's going to be up there for a long period of time.
And it requires elaborate engineering and very careful attention to detail.
Month-long tests ensure that life support systems will work at high altitude.
Two engines will pressurize the cabin and generate power for communications.
This giant pressure chamber simulates flight conditions, low pressure at high altitude.
If their cabin ruptures in mid-flight, they'll have to descend immediately.
If both engines stop, they'll be without breathable air and the flight will be over.
They also have to make sure that the burners will work in the thin air at altitude.
The burners and engines will be fueled by six giant tanks of propane gas, each one weighing 2,000 pounds.
They'll be flying in fast-moving ribbons of air called jet streams that flow at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour.
For the time being, Lindstrom plans to launch from England into a sub-polar burst,
a lower-level wind that flows into the subtropical jet stream.
Getting into a jet stream is not unlike jumping onto a speeding train,
and no one has ever tried to do it with a DeRosier balloon.
Lindstrom knows that he might either be bounced back out of the jet stream
or rise so quickly that his balloon will punch straight through to the other side.
So they built test balloons. One question is how much fuel they'll need to fly around the world.
Because we're flying in a helium hot air balloon rather than a pure hot air balloon,
and because we're pushing the length of time that a balloon's going to be in the air from three days to maybe up to 20 days,
there may be other things that will go wrong.
Virgin's project director Mike Kendrick is also worried.
You have to fly these things. There's no question of just sitting in there and doing nothing.
You have to fly these things every minute of the day and for 12 to 18 days in a deteriorating situation.
It's going to be a real nail-biter.
I was more frightened about our original projects. I'm not sure why I'm so much less frightened about this one.
The likelihood of a circumnavigation, in my view, and it's a personal view, is very low. I think 10% or less.
I'll give it a chance at 50% to make it. No more.
Because the race could last up to three weeks, they begin to search for a third crew member to share the workload.
The person must be alert, quick-thinking, without tenderness to panic, to be able to react to something going wrong.
Remarkably, the ideal choice from thousands of applicants was right under their noses.
Millionaire Rory McCarthy, chairman of Lindstrom's Balloon Company.
A life-size action man with a range of interchangeable hairstyles, Rory had followed in the footsteps of Joe Kittinger,
breaking two world altitude records for hang gliding and civilian skydiving, both from balloons piloted by Per Lindstrom.
The third person in this project had to be a contributor, had to bring something to the project.
It's not just about money and sponsorship, it's about safety, and I have the parachuting altitude record.
I've skydived from the altitudes that we're going to.
I love speed, velocity, I love power, in a physical sense.
I'm a pilot, I fight fighter jets.
I have one that goes faster than the speed of sound, and one that goes close to it.
Not particularly the most de-stressing of sports hobbies.
He's a daredevil and a businessman, capable of raising over half a million dollars in sponsorship to buy his seat on the flight.
Unfortunately, with Rory, we got the best of both worlds. We've got a great personality and a contribution towards the cost of the project.
If I am one of the first three men, one of the team that goes around the world first, nobody will ever be able to take that away from us.
But Rory's team isn't the only one going for glory. The pressure is heating up.
Fawcett plans to fly a helium-only balloon at low altitude, which puts him at the mercy of local weather.
Brink, like Branson, will use a DeRosier flying in the more predictable jet stream.
The Odyssey Project announces that they will fly up to 25 miles high at the very edge of the Earth's atmosphere.
They're planning to use an off-the-shelf weather balloon.
These balloons have already flown around the world, but unmanned, carrying only instruments.
One of the three-man team who intends to fly in the Odyssey capsule is Mark Sullivan.
If we were to lose pressure at that altitude, the consequences would be catastrophic.
I guess you could be sucked out of a porthole or your blood would boil. It would be pretty bad, pretty intense. You're in the fringes of outer space.
The Odyssey balloon is by far the largest of the four main competitors,
40 times larger than Branson and Brink's balloons, and 80 times larger than Fawcett's.
These are some very serious attempts that are being made.
The Lindstrand-Branson effort, they have many of the great achievements in ballooning.
Hank Brink is very well organized and has an excellent reputation for only undertaking a well-prepared trip.
I have heard that Steve Fawcett is planning a low-level flight.
They'll be 100% sure that he will be sucked into a low-pressure system or something like that.
You can't make a nonstop flight around the world.
Unlike any other team, Fawcett, with his shoestring approach, intends to go it alone.
It's bad enough when things start going wrong with somebody else to be on your own.
It must be potentially nightmarish, and I think he's definitely a stronger person than I am.
This is an unpressurized capsule. The systems are far simpler, far lighter,
so I'm able to fly a much smaller balloon, and I hope to reduce the risk of equipment failure.
Everyone else is flying at high altitudes where temperature, oxygen, and air pressure are low.
We could, in theory, just use an oxygen mask, and while that will give us enough oxygen to breathe through,
the rest of the body is not under pressure, and therefore after four or five hours with the mask only,
you start getting medical problems, and therefore for two weeks it's not possible.
The other solution would be a full spacesuit where the entire body is encapsulated in the pressurized environment.
This, in fact, is a Russian spacesuit that will work medically,
but for two weeks being restrained in an inflatable bladder like that is quite a strain,
and really on a typical space mission you're in four or five hours inside the suit.
The only solution is to seal themselves inside a capsule. But what happens if things go wrong?
I suppose the most cataclysmic thing that could happen would be a failure in the structure of the balloon itself.
Then we'd have a real problem, and then we would be faced undoubtedly with having a skydive out of the capsule.
Now, skydiving out at 35,000 feet is fraught with risk.
The temperature at that altitude is in the region of minus 70.
Throw in the fact that when we skydive it out, we'll very quickly attain speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour.
An early deployment at those altitudes would overstress the parachute to an unbelievable level,
and would undoubtedly cause the parachute to shred, explode literally.
The only debate would be what would shred first, the people attached to the parachute or the parachute itself.
So it's not a walk in the park, and I think that's why I'm here. I mean, I can take Richard with me. I know I can.
But Rory's heroic dreams can't keep the project from running into trouble.
We are working flat out to complete the balloon, and it's always difficult to judge the cost of a project of its nature.
We have a project cost of 2.7 million pounds. The original estimate was 1.5,
and therefore out of the overrun of 1.2 million pounds, Virgin is asking us to stamp up 600,000 pounds, half the overrun,
which is completely unrealistic for a company of Lindstrom Balloon size.
Still, it was Lindstrom himself who signed the original contract with Virgin,
agreeing to complete the project for 1.5 million pounds, about 3 million dollars.
I mean, Pears Company Lindstroms, they'll make some money out of this project, despite the fact that it has gone slightly overrun.
I mean, some of that overrun, most of that overrun, is not their fault as such. It's just making sure that we have a project that works.
Where's the contract?
At the moment, I'm being faced with signed documents saying that I've got to pay back 600,000 pounds.
Essentially, that means for the next 10 years, I will make no profit of any kind.
So I've got to donate the next 10 years of my life to Virgin Group.
Surprisingly, McCarthy, Lindstrom's chairman, seems to take Branson's side.
We were over budget, and here was a deal which halved the overspend, so that Virgin picked up half of it,
Lindstrom picked up the other half. Now, is that a good deal or is that a good deal?
Not much.
The laughs continued in front of the cameras, but with financial and personal tensions building, there were understandable second thoughts.
My six-year-old son, Cameron, who I particularly adore, is at an age where he fully understands what I'm doing, the risks involved.
The phone rang, and it was him crying hysterically down the phone, and I found that quite moving, actually.
He was actually saying, don't go, Daddy.
I've talked about it with my wife, Sally, all through last night.
It sort of came to the point where I just said, let's just go.
History does not record Sally's reply.
In Holland, archrival Henk Brink, using a method similar to Branson's, pronounces himself ready to go.
That's good, that's a good job.
Lindstrom has a foot in both camps.
But I built this thing that I was going to be in competition with my own engineering.
Though his primary commitment is to the Branson team, he'd also helped design the Dutchman's capsule.
We have essentially six months to build the entire system and make it flight ready. These people had four years.
Brink actually had time to test his equipment.
I was able to test my balloon, to test inflate it in the space shuttle hangar at Cape Kennedy.
We could inflate the balloon with helium, leave it for three days and see if there was any leak in the balloon, if all the lines worked well and so on.
I'm slightly baffled. I mean, he seems to have extremely good equipment.
And I'm surprised he hasn't taken off before now.
Meanwhile, there's trouble with the Odyssey team, who can't raise enough money for the flight.
They decide to postpone for a year.
The other teams could be ahead of us right now because of funding.
Fossett's obviously self-funded. Branson's self-funded. So they have an advantage. They've got a lot of money behind them.
Unfortunately, I would say the odds are against any of the teams making it this year.
On September 19th, a disturbing news story.
Troops in the former Soviet Republic of Belarus have shot down an American balloon that had flown into its airspace.
The two pilots were killed.
The implications for all the global balloonists are ominous.
Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Zenebekov is invited to breakfast by Branson to give his advice on getting permission to fly over foreign airspace.
The actual shooting down of the two balloonists, you say that they were coming straight towards a very sensitive nuclear area.
Yes. This is very close to the position of the nuclear rockets.
We believe that the base was so secret it wasn't even on the western maps.
We are going to need to talk to some of these embassies. I mean, the Iranian embassy, actually. I know the ambassador. I've met him on a few occasions.
Oh, really?
And he's very charming.
Selecting the right route could be a matter of life and death. Luckily, Branson owns an airline, which ought to know how to avoid being shot down.
We went through yesterday the countries that we're likely to fly over, and some of them we've black-spotted.
And we're obviously mindful of what's gone on in Belarus a matter of a few weeks back.
I think we're just going to have to inform a lot of countries, and then about 48 hours before we hit a country, you're just going to have to scramble.
And if the absolute worst comes to the worst, we just have to decide whether to take a risk and go off air for 24 hours.
They've got ways of making you descend, though.
The fear of a forced descent prompts the three men to do some serious training.
Three weeks behind schedule, the balloonists finally make time to practice for a crash landing in the water.
Any ditching is both dangerous and confusing. You have to know how to get out of the capsule, even if you're upside down.
I thought the tank training was more realistic than I expected.
The primary problem I felt was the fact you couldn't see.
It gave me a lot of respect for the water. I must admit respect I didn't have before.
Even as they storm test the capsule, team members begin to pour cold water on the project's chances.
As far as I'm concerned, if they land more than 250 miles off the coast of the Pacific, they're effectively dead. I can't get them. And that's the big one for me.
Rory, too, is worried. As the new guy, will he be ready in time?
Truth is, I'm almost the most untrained part of this project, because they at least have flown the Atlantic and the Pacific.
They have experience of being in these enclosed environments, over the seas. I've never done that.
But Richard Branson didn't get where he is today by being a pessimist.
Rory obviously hasn't flown a balloon of this size before, but he's a pilot, and I'm sure he'll pick it up extremely quickly.
As far as helium balloons are concerned, Pair has only had a few hours' experience of actually flying a helium balloon. There are very few people who have had more than a few hours.
There are a number of critical tests, such as ice formation on the balloon, the operation of the helium gas valve, the balloons behaving in the jet stream, etc.
Regrettably, they weren't carried out.
How critical is this test flight now? Would you fly the project without doing this test flight?
Is there anything you've learned that you said you don't need this test flight now?
Again, entry to the jet has not been explored. Icing has been explored.
It wasn't a financial thing. I think it just became...
Pair is up to his neck in running a business and building this project. It just became one of those things which nobody had time to get done.
We haven't had the luxury of time, and there has been a budget.
And therefore, I believe that... I'm not saying corners have been cut. I think that's too dramatic.
But I don't believe that all the safety precautions, and particularly research into problems we might face, have been properly tested.
There are places where there's no way that anyone can get to you apart from our own resources.
Right, but I don't think we could just add that when the time comes.
You know, we're taking a few risks. I think there's one more risk we could take.
What's your guess? I mean, can we find the money? That's what I'm saying.
Well, you can't ask me that. I mean, at the moment, beyond the fund, this is it. I haven't got money to finish off the capsule anyway.
The risk factor of this project, purely through unknowns, has gone up exponentially.
We're flying in a balloon that has never been tested.
We're flying in a capsule that has never been tested.
In spite of all the unresolved difficulties and the unrelenting pressure of time,
they suspend all work on the capsule so it can be driven to London for a press conference and reception.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has been flown to London to unveil the unfinished capsule.
It's an unveiling for Branson and McCarthy too, practically the first time they see it.
It is of great concern that none of the other two people have actually spent any time on the server
practicing for the mission with the balloon equipment,
apart from being inside the capsule for a brief moment during the press conference.
None of them has actually been inside, sat in there, gone through the system,
being told how it's engineered, checklist.
There's been no time spent whatsoever.
How much would you like to be going?
I haven't been asked and I'm not sure. I'm pretty busy right now.
There's no way that either Rory or Richard could actually land the balloon.
Rory hasn't got a balloon license, nor has any balloon training.
In terms of preparation specifically for this project,
no, I have not prepared to a level that I feel comfortable with.
Flying a balloon isn't that difficult a thing to do.
After a couple of days working together, flying, after a few hours working together, flying,
we will soon know everything there is to know about what's inside that capsule.
The real place to learn is actually in flight.
If Pair was incapacitated, the same thing would have to happen when we cross the Atlantic,
and I'd just have to cope.
I can skydive from there. I've done it. I know what it involves.
I can even hold my breath and skydive from there and survive.
But what's Richard going to do?
The last time Richard Branson skydived, he nearly killed himself.
When the moment came, he pulled the wrong handle.
He lost his parachute completely.
His instructor saved him by releasing an emergency chute.
For Branson, parachuting from 30,000 feet will not be an easy option.
It's far more likely that I will finally end up dying from something which I hadn't prepared for,
than something like a balloon attempt where we're well prepared and realize the dangers
and are ready and willing to cope with them.
If we land in the sea, we're going to be as seasick as dogs for hours and hours.
You've got Maxillan and your kid there.
Maxillan, right.
I don't think anything is worth costing your life,
but you never actually believe that anything is going to cost you your life.
I would never write a will unless it was something like this.
In the last ten years, I've written the will six times,
which most people maybe only do once in their lifetime.
Seven weeks after the balloon should have been on the launch site, it's still being made.
We are on a plan now to have the balloon ready between Christmas and New Year,
and it will be ready.
But that was due to immense amount of sacrifice by the girls working there,
because it's tough to work three shifts seven days a week.
Over Christmas, the balloon is tested for leaks,
but patients, time, and money are running out.
People were concerned about being paid,
and there were times we couldn't pay people,
which was obviously a great story of morale that has been repaired now,
but it has been replaced to a degree with very frail nerves as the camps are getting ready in time.
Too few people, working too many hours with not enough pay.
It's not a good recipe for quality control.
A minor blemish in the balloon fabric could spell disaster.
Four days before Christmas, the team calls Branson, who's taken his family to the Caribbean.
The English weather is terrible.
Should they also move south to the sunshine?
Five, five hours.
Hello, Richard?
Yeah.
It's Mike and Per and Dave Partridge.
Hi, Mike. How's it going?
We've got the maps of Tunisia and Morocco with us.
Fine.
Now, on the weather side, we're comfortable that we're going to get the right ground conditions in Marrakesh.
Even the most basic research provides calm weather conditions up until about 12 o'clock.
Okay, so the takeoff and obviously for the jet stream, it's obviously better, right, so that's weather.
I mean, there's no reason why we shouldn't just be able to take off within half of the day, is there?
We should be ready on site, technically to go, say, January 8th, 9th, 10th, 10th, the latest.
Make the way into base A.
You're okay.
The total cost of going to Marrakesh over the UK, I think, would be in excess of £100,000.
You really think you can get it all in within less than £100,000?
Well, not less. I said in excess.
Okay, good. So let's get to work with that.
Any more news from America with the other cut balloon? Has he taken off yet?
Hank Brink has gone totally and utterly dead.
Steve Fawcett is definitely flying and expect him to inflate within a week or two.
After New Year's, Steve Fawcett announces that he'll take off.
But the outer skin of his balloon begins to tear even before he leaves the ground.
Not to be discouraged, Fawcett launches anyway, and the race is on.
It's so difficult to predict the next 30 days, and they will be throwing a party for Steve Fawcett
because I think if he achieves what he's set out to achieve and beats us,
I think he would have achieved something even greater than what we're trying to achieve.
The next day, Branson announces he will launch in five days.
There is a race on, and if that means doing what Steve Fawcett's done,
that is, say, taking off a day or two before, perhaps the actual, absolutely ideal conditions are there
in order to try to catch him up.
I suspect that's something which is in our temperaments to do.
The news comes as something of a shock to Rory.
I've been very busy. I haven't been going to the gym.
I haven't been concentrating on my diet.
I haven't done parachute training that I should have done.
Rich has been phenomenally busy.
Per is up his eyeballs building the project.
I'm concerned that we're going to go down on Friday and get a new balloon on Sunday and go around the world.
In some ways, it will make the achievement that much more astounding.
The balloon is loaded aboard a specially adapted transport plane that Branson has borrowed.
Everything, man, machine, and misgivings, moves to Morocco.
The balloon's new home is a hangar at Marrakesh Airport.
It's finally arrived at its launch site, more than 10 weeks behind schedule.
The Moroccan military had helpfully hosed down the hangar the previous day.
Unfortunately, it's still ankle-deep in water.
Hundreds of troops have been volunteered to help,
but sweeping water out of hangars is apparently not in their job description.
Eventually, the men join in the fun, and the multinational crew teams up for the big push.
The mirror snag or speck of dirt could cause a delay, so boots are removed and zippers carefully taped over.
Once the hangar is clean and dry, the balloon is carefully laid out.
The doors are left open to complete the drying process.
Sadly, someone has forgotten to tell the pilots.
It's a graphic demonstration of what really happens when the stuff hits the fan.
Dust from the tarmac funnels back into the hangar, and the work of hours is wasted.
The forecast for a takeoff in three days begins to look very unlikely.
The project needs a boost, so the crew is relieved to hear that Steve Fawcett has given up and landed in New Brunswick, Canada.
Three days into his trip, the balloon shredded in midair.
Mr. Fawcett, how do you feel?
Rather disappointed and embarrassed that I didn't do better on this.
A thousand miles away in Holland, Henk Brink is also worried.
My balloon is three and a half, four times bigger than Steve Fawcett's balloon,
so if the same had happened to me half a day after takeoff, flying over the Alps,
I can't see how I could ever have landed safely.
The balloon is made by the same manufacturer as Fawcett's, so there are faults with his fabric too.
The Civil Aviation Authority here in Holland, they have grounded my balloon after five years of work.
Undeterred by the rival's failure, the Branson team is buoyant.
Another country, another photo opportunity.
The team unpacks their jumpsuits, the astronaut makes what turns out to be a very rude gesture in Morocco,
and the Air Force tries to redeem itself.
I love this. God, I love this.
To increase his aerodynamic profile, Rory shaves his head completely,
and everybody gives their jumpsuits a test flight.
And then, it starts to rain.
Well, it's strange, obviously, we came to Morocco for perfect launch conditions,
and they've had a five-year drought, and suddenly we have a low right over the top of us,
and the weatherman's saying that at least a week, maybe ten days, before we can take off.
Had the weather been perfect, we would have possibly been there today.
And that left me with an uneasy feeling of people's deep understanding of the system.
To impart the minimum acceptable level for a safe action during an emergency is possible,
but it means a week on site, and now it looks like I got that week.
This is the satellite software, which will allow you to talk to the outside world.
Technically, I could say every three hours, but if you're in transit and looking at the bird, then it's not an issue.
Outside of here, you have a boom this way, and you have a boom that way.
When you see ready on the screen, you don't.
I've set up a window here, global challenger email.
When I flew down, the news was that we were about to go.
We've now been down here a few days. The bad weather has prevented us from going.
It's given me a chance to be around the engineers and the technicians,
to ask all the questions about all the stuff that I was worried about.
And actually, I'm feeling incredibly positive. I'm really looking forward to going.
Can you not pull it out once you screw it in? Oh, you can, yes. You just unscrew it again.
Once you screw it in, you can't pull it out now. Oh, no, no, yeah.
It's probably not working. How do you know whether it's open or closed?
There are a hundred details to learn.
GPS navigation equipment, PHF, UHF, and satellite telephone linkups,
burner and pressurization systems, emergency procedures,
and most important, cameras for live television transmissions.
There's one on the outside.
There's quite a lot of training to do. I mean, it is a little more than with a hot air balloon.
The important thing is actually just having time to talk together back at the hotel,
just going through all the sort of what-if scenarios.
Hey, I've got a quick question. If we're pushed up into the Arctic,
and we stay up high, and we actually then cross the longitudinal line around here,
will we actually have made the record?
The director has done a fantastic job, and he's had to do it at the end of the day,
even at the extended budget, you know, whatever the eventual price is going to be.
Even that has had their corners have been cut.
So the original calculation was flawed, and I don't know who's responsible for that.
But this project could never have been done for 1.5 million pounds. Never.
There are very much unsolved contractual obligations between Virgin and ourselves
that must be resolved before I'm going to fly the balloon.
Yes. So when you melt it together, you form a bond at 140 degrees.
Right.
Should you, however, heat the entire balloon to 140 degrees,
it will totally fall apart in its components,
and there'll be 140 pounds raining down.
I think that there's enough stress in this project without adding to it,
so I'm just keeping a positive mental attitude towards it.
We need each other.
What we're doing is potentially life-threatening.
Can you imagine if we didn't gel together as a team?
To help the gelling process, Rory, Per, and Richard hit the town.
The team that plays together stays together.
Richard and Rory try to drum up team spirit by wearing indigenous head gear
and dancing like someone's uncle at a wedding.
Per, however, decides to sit this one out.
I'm also about to step in the balloon with two individuals
that perhaps aren't getting on as well as they should be,
but on the face of it it seems to be all right.
And I feel that, you know, if these things need sorting out,
or there has to be a blood, for God's sake, do it now,
before we get in this capsule.
And still it rains.
Only three weeks remain before the fast midwinter jet streams
will disappear until the end of the year.
Are they ever going to take off?
Finally, it looks as if the weather might clear.
They rehearse in inflation in preparation for takeoff.
The pressures of weather, money, and training have been such
that the problem of getting permission to fly over neighboring countries
has still not been secured.
Without these permissions, they could be shot out at the sky.
Three out of four countries in their immediate flight path
are prepared to do just that.
Algeria is the first.
France is friends of Algeria, Britain is friends of Algeria.
I mean, you know, we can't sort Algeria out, we can't sort anything out.
According to the Portuguese, Libya may shoot.
Libya will shoot.
You should see what the facts they've written.
It is very firm.
Virgin Atlantic Global Challenger,
permission is not granted.
Please avoid entering Tripoli, F-I-R, stop, best regards.
Stop, best regards.
Luckily, Branson, citizen of the world, has a few contacts up his sleeve.
Is Crown Prince Hassan in, please?
Branson?
The Crown Prince Hassan?
He didn't even deliver.
You go too far north.
Hello?
No.
Hello?
Right, is the Crown Prince in, please?
Who are you?
Hi, it's Richard Branson, B-R-A-N-S-O-N.
Branson?
Yes, Branson.
Yes.
Good morning, Downing Street.
Can I have Mr. Major's office, please?
What country are we talking about?
Algeria.
Hello?
Edward?
Richard, hello.
Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I've got one more country which needs doing.
Algeria.
I just wondered whether we could have an identical letter to Saudi Arabia.
Right.
It seems that we're finding that over-flying clearance is tougher than actually flying
the plane.
Theoretically, we should make it back to Europe.
We have a small problem in that Libya has sent us a fax saying that we can't fly over
their country.
What a bore.
I'm not quite sure what your relationships are like with Libya.
Well, you can only imagine.
Are they reasonable or are they not so good?
Well, it depends on him rather than us, I think.
Sorry?
But we'll certainly give it a go.
Why not?
We've really just got to give it two weeks to sort it out.
If we can't sort it out, we're just going to have to abandon until next year.
Sadly, all the hot air and politics can't float the balloon.
My vote would be to get out and grovel.
It seems like the only thing we can do.
As a last desperate measure, they take out the Atlas.
The next country past Libya is Egypt.
Will the conditions for takeoff be better there?
The indication is that this is fairly windy.
Certainly, the wind observations at Cairo Airport show fairly consistent winds.
Luxor is much more sheltered.
You know, if we assume Egypt, all we have to do is find out about local weather
and define the location.
Then we have to work out a critical path for transport.
Why don't we just try to transport it down the line?
Seriously.
Let's look at it.
Okay?
A lovely thing to do.
We only have 17 days left, effectively.
So in 17 days, we've got to pack up route, move to Cairo,
truck down to Luxor.
And the real big problem is three helium trailers at 42 ton each.
16.1.
I wouldn't say it's impossible, but well not impossible.
So the year's running out.
The last shot.
We could just go to Egypt, drive the balloon there.
Then when that doesn't work out, we'll carry on to India.
And by the end of the year or so, we'll be around the world.
Yeah, sea freight across to Japan.
In the end, they decide to pack up and go home.
They're now waiting until the strong jet stream reforms in November to try again.
They mothballed a capsule and left it in Marrakesh.
As it turned out, it didn't work out, but if we'd actually stayed in Greenwich
or gone to Oxford, it wouldn't have worked out either.
So at least the odds were that much better.
When you do a project of this magnitude, you can't expect a plain sailing.
There will be friction. There will be problems.
And we had our fair share of problems.
All those problems, hopefully we can straighten out this year
and start with a clean sheet.
In the winter of 1996-1997, Fawcett, Odyssey, Branson and Brink intend to try again.
But this time, they may face even more competition.
Others have had time to plan.
Throughout the year, more balloonists have declared their willingness
to fly around the world in an unpowered balloon.
All are driven by a belief that a dream, once thought impossible, may be just within reach.
Follow the latest attempts to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon.
Liftoff from NOVA's website at PBS.org.
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