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Five teams poised for round-the-world balloon race

Balloon
Anheuser-Busch will pay the winner $1 million   
December 31, 1997
Web posted at: 7:46 a.m. EST (1246 GMT)

(CNN) -- The new year is getting started with a round-the-world balloon race, involving up to five different teams of daredevils.

The lure? The chance to be the first to circle the globe in a balloon without landing. And, the additional reward of $1 million offered by Anheuser-Busch.

Two of the five teams left on New Year's Eve, and the three others may try to get going in the next few days.

CNN's Paul Caron shows the teams
icon 2 min. VXtreme streaming video

Several of the leading contenders are already millionaires and have plenty of money to finance their trips, but one -- a Chicago architect who hopes to fly solo -- is doing it on his own, tapping into his life savings, corporate support, and yes, a loan with a balloon payment.

Here's a scorecard of the five teams:

Uliassi
Uliassi prepares Tuesday for a possible launch on Wednesday   

  • Kevin Uliassi is attempting his big dream on a small shoestring. He took a leave of absence nine months ago from his job as an architect in Rockford, Illinois, to concentrate on his balloon -- the J. Renee, named for his wife.

    He saved $40,000 by redesigning the capsule, and $5,000 by rigging his own batteries. A volunteer wired the capsule free of charge.

    Uliassi's longest balloon trip has been just over 100 miles, but he doesn't consider himself a long shot.

    "I look forward to it as an adventure," he told CNN in early December. "I know I'll be uncomfortable. I may be cold, I may not be as well fed as I am here on the ground. But I'm really looking forward to the flight. I enjoy every balloon flight I've ever had, even the tough ones."

    Uliassi took off Wednesday night.

  • Steve Fossett, a Chicago millionaire, launched his bid from St. Louis on Wednesday.

    Early in 1997 he made an around-the-world attempt but his balloon came down in an India mustard field after six days in the air. He blamed the failure on not carrying enough propane fuel to allow the proper steering that is needed in altitude changes.

    Fossett will use a bigger balloon this time, or rather, balloons. A small helium-filled balloon is wrapped under a tent, over a the larger balloon, called the gas cell. He can control the balloon's altitude by working a propane ethane burner.

    Fossett, president of his own securities company, is paying for his $350,000 balloon himself.

    Why?

    "It's for a sense of personal achievement," Fossett has said. "This is an objective, perhaps the greatest unachieved goal in aviation."

    Both Fossett and Uliassi are attempting to fly solo -- meaning little sleep. The journey could take at least three weeks, in sub-zero temperatures.

  • Dick Rutan and co-pilot David Melton will try it together, and they hope to launch Monday from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    The team's benefactor is Hilton Hotel Chairman Barron Hilton, who along with Pepsi has pitched in on the project's $1 million cost.

    For a man at Social Security age and already a flight pioneer in Charles Lindbergh's league, the risks -- and they are many -- hardly seem worth it. It would seem a man so intimate with airplanes and speed and danger has nothing left to prove. Voyager took care of that.

    Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew their ultra-streamlined airplane around the world without landing or refueling. The Voyager now hangs in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.

    "I can't imagine not doing this," says Rutan. "Why would somebody not do this?"

    Perhaps, it is suggested, to avoid crashing and dying in a hostile land or icy sea? His face makes it clear no dumber suggestion could have been made. This is turf Rutan knows well: The philosophy of danger.

    "I found in combat," the former Air Force pilot said, "the more dangerous the missions, the harder the guys fought to take them."

    And so on a day in early January, depending on the weather, Rutan and Melton, 39, a veteran balloonist from New Mexico, will step into the orb and do what adventurous men do: push the boundaries of safety and common sense in the name of glory.

    Branson
    Branson   

  • British tycoon Richard Branson found out in December that money won't guarantee a successful flight. In Morocco his $400,000 balloon ripped from its moorings and sailed unmanned over North Africa. The craft was found, damaged, and his attempt was put on hold. Will he try again this week?

    "We'll do our utmost to catch up," Branson said. "It's the last great aviation record -- who will be the first to go around the world."

    The jet stream is favorable for a launch only until the end of January, meaning that if the racers do not take off by then, they will not have another opportunity until late 1998.

    Swiss balloonist Bertrand Piccard has added a crew member since his last try, when the two-man crew aborted soon after launch.

    In mid-December he was high in the Swiss Alps, preparing to take off in the Breitling Orbiter 2.

    "Human beings always want to do more, to discover more, to achieve more. In normal life, it's also like this. So in the life of a pilot, it's being part of this wish to go around the world," Piccard said.

    The last time Piccard tried, fumes leaking from a fuel tank forced the pilots to ditch after just six hours. This time, the balloon has been significantly modified to avoid such glitches.

    • The Associated Press contributed to this report.

     
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