Double Eagle V

Double Eagle V was the first balloon to make a successful crossing of the Pacific Ocean. It launched from Nagashima, Japan on November 10, 1981, and landed in Mendocino National Forest in California 84 hours and 31 minutes later, travelling a record 5,768 miles (9,283 km).[1] The four-man crew consisted of Albuquerque balloonists Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Ron Clark, and thrill-seeking restaurateur Rocky Aoki, who helped fund the flight. The helium-filled Double Eagle V spent four days crossing the Pacific before the balloon, weighed down by ice and buffeted by a storm, crash-landed in northern California, ending the nearly 6,000-mile flight. No one was hurt. [2]

Abruzzo and Newman had previously been two of the pilots of Double Eagle II, which in 1978 became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic.

Double Eagle V failed to attract the same degree of media attention as the earlier flight, in part because it was overshadowed by the concurrent Space Shuttle mission STS-2.[3]

In January 2015, the crew of the Two Eagles Balloon completed a flight across the Pacific Ocean. If verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, it will officially have broken the distance record of the Double Eagle II.[4]

References
  1. Nelson, Ray (1985). Flight of the Pacific Eagle. Albuquerque: Transpac.
  2. "Ron Clark Died: September 26, 2010 Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico". Evans.tributes.com. Evans Tributes. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  3. Kirshenbaum, Jerry, ed. (November 23, 1981). "Scorecard: Swift, Far, and Romantic". Sports Illustrated. 55 (22): 33.
  4. "Balloonists set records crossing Pacific". Retrieved 30 January 2015.

Further reading
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