Men who beat billionaire Richard Branson in race around the world celebrated in new doc
Battling through extreme weather conditions, dodging technical errors that could cause fatal failures, and enduring mental and physical exhaustion, this pair’s record-breaking hot air balloon flight is set to be relived in new documentary The Balloonists.
The film, released in UK cinemas on 22 May, charts the story of Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard and British flight instructor Brian Jones, who together in 1999, embarked on an adventure that would become one of the greatest aviation triumphs of the 20th century.
In March 1999, the duo completed their flight around the world in Breitling Orbiter 3 – the first circumnavigation of the world by balloon.
Part of their flight, from 1 to 21 March, broke another two records. Their non-stop passage from Switzerland to Egypt was the longest time flying a balloon and the farthest distance flown in a balloon.
They’d been continuously airborne for 19 days 21 hr 47 min and covered 40,814 km (25,361 miles).
The feat they achieved had been one many others were racing to get to first. Technology had seen the invention of heavier-than-air aircrafts and even men walking on the moon, but still nobody had flown around the globe in a hot air balloon.
Bertrand and Brian were very much the underdogs of the competition, with many people backing billionaire Richard Branson, an accomplished balloonist, to get there first.
The duo had already tried twice with varying success. The first time, they crashed into the Mediterranean Sea just a few hours after taking off, and the second time, they did break the nonstop flight record but landed too early to complete a full circumnavigation.
A third attempt was down to Bertrand, who was the team’s fundraiser, spokesperson and pilot. He also had big shoes to fill since his grandfather Auguste Piccard set a record in 1931 as the first person to reach the stratosphere.
Image: Bertrand and Brian with their balloon. Credit: Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones
He jointly earned that title alongside his assistant Charles Kipfer when they flew to an altitude of 15,781 m (51,775 ft) in a gas-filled balloon designed by Auguste.
Three decades after that, Bertrand’s dad, Jacques, led the first dive to the Challenger Deep by a crewed vessel when he took a submersible to Earth’s deepest known point alongside Captain Donald Walsh (USA).
With his father and grandfather both record-breaking explorers, the pressure was certainly on for Bertrand to follow in their footsteps, and after finding the perfect flying partner in Brian, his dream finally became a reality.
Image: Bertrand in the flight deck. Credit: Brian Jones
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The film’s director, BAFTA winner John Dower, said: “When Rise Films first approached me with the story of Bertrand and Brian’s journey, I had never heard of it but, coincidentally, was reading a book on grief in which there was an unexpected account of balloonists, Gaspard-Felix Tournachon who, in 1858, took the first ever photograph of the world from the sky. I was gripped by this story of an adventurer-slash-artist who enacts a cognitive change enabling us to look at ourselves from afar, to make the subjective suddenly objective.
“As someone with crippling vertigo and for whom ballooning meant something that happened at children’s parties, the coincidence was simply too alluring.
“So was Bertrand and Brian’s story – on one level it is an extraordinary adventure story with high stakes and dramatic twists and turns. On another level, it is an unlikely buddy movie that develops as a special bond forms between the two men in such extreme circumstances. And here also is a level of cognitive change whereby the overall story enables the viewer to look at themselves and their place in the world through the extraordinary journey these two men undertook.”
Image: Brian adjusting controls. Credit: Bertrand Piccard
The Balloonists features intimate interviews with Bertrand, Brian and his wife Jo, Bertrand’s previous co-pilot turned rival, and many others.
The Balloonists is in cinemas from 22 May. Find out more on the official website.