June 29, 2021 Earthrounders

The Liberty Gazette

June 29, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Ed Yost was adrift in the middle of the ocean. His craft rocked from side to side as it floated up and down with each swell. He had released his balloon after coming down in the water. Now, he just had to wait to be rescued with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company.  

It was 1976, and it was his grandest attempt yet. He had tried to be the first person to sail a balloon across the Atlantic. Even though he had set 13 world records, he did not make it to Europe. The wind blew his craft too far south and left him stranded. But fourteen years earlier, he and fellow balloonist Don Piccard had piloted the first balloon across the English Channel.

Chronicled in the February 1977 issue of National Geographic, he recounted how search and rescue pilots found him and dispatched a boat to pick him up. The light-hearted air crew dropped him some supplies along with something to read while he waited—the novel, Jaws.

While Ed never did succeed in ballooning across the Atlantic, he designed the first one that did, the Double Eagle II. Two years after Ed’s attempt, a farmer in France watched as a large silver-looking bag settle into the middle of his barley field. The bag was eleven stories tall until it collapsed. In the balloon’s gondola, Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo, and Larry Newman made history having piloted the craft all the way from Maine. Later, Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo, along with two other crew members, flew another of Ed’s creations, the Double Eagle V, across the Pacific Ocean non-stop from Japan to Oregon, in just four days.

Eighteen years later, Bertrand Piccard, cousin to Don Piccard, Ed’s old flying bud, and Brian Jones circumnavigated the globe in the Breitling Orbiter 3, a Rozière balloon, designed to use both heated air and helium gas. They traveled 25,360 miles in just short of 20 days. Not bad for letting the wind push and steer them. 

The Breitling crew had an additional hurdle staying clear of China’s airspace which didn’t let any foreign aircraft fly over their country then. Piccard and Jones picked different altitudes so the direction of the wind would blow them around the country. 

This summer, British balloonists Deborah Day and Mike Scholes will use another Rozière balloon in their Transatlantic attempt. Deborah plans to be the first woman to pilot a balloon across the Atlantic and Mike wants to be the first legally blind person to do so. 

Recently, Shinji Maeda, from Japan, now living in Seattle, flew his Bonanza solo around the world. He was the first a one-eyed pilot to claim this accomplishment. His was a great personal victory that took a lot of planning, good judgment, and the support of many people. His message to those struggling with a disability: “Nothing is impossible.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com