March 20, 1999
Web posted at: 6:35 a.m. EST (1135 GMT)

(CNN) -- Brian Jones, co-pilot of the Breitling Orbiter 3, was a latecomer to the world's first successful nonstop, around-the-world balloon flight.

Jones, 51, is a former Royal Air Force pilot and commercial ballooning instructor. He was the backup pilot for Bertrand Piccard's last Breitling attempt to break one of the last great aviation milestones in 1998.

Jones was mission control chief Alan Noble's deputy during that attempt by the Swiss psychiatrist Piccard and the co-pilot, Belgium's Wim Verstraeten. He was the backup pilot for the Breitling Orbiter 3, the current mission, and got his chance to fly when Piccard's intended co-pilot Tony Brown stepped aside.

Jones announced at the outset of the current effort that he wanted to land the craft in the Egyptian desert, near the pyramids at Giza.

Learning to fly at 16, he has racked up about 1,200 flight hours in lighter-than-air craft since 1986.

He and his wife, Joanna, have two children and three grandchildren.

His sense of humor showed itself before the flight with a jab at a rival, British tycoon Richard Branson.

Reporting that they planned to swing southwest over Morocco before turning east on their epic flight, Jones added, "Maybe we'll drop something or other on Richard Branson's landing strip just to say hello."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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