Nationality: United Kingdom

Inducted: 2025

Notable Record(s):

• Greatest height reached in a hot-air airship (David)
• First transatlantic flight in an open wicker basket (David)
• Longest duration balloon flight (AX-04, female) (Alicia)

A family of ICONs because...

Be it ice or wind, never-ending expanses of wilderness or seas unmapped, nothing can stop the Hempleman-Adams family.

Their record-setting legacy started with British trailblazer Sir David Hempleman-Adams, a pioneering explorer and balloonist.

He is renowned for being the first person to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam, reaching the North and South Poles and climbing the highest peaks on all seven continents.

The Swindon native also completed the first solo balloon flight to the North Pole and the first open-basket balloon crossing of the Atlantic in 2003, travelling from Canada to the UK in an over-83-hour gruelling journey without shelter and against the elements. 

Inspired by her father, David's eldest daughter Alicia stayed true to her family's adventurous spirit... setting plenty of records of her own!  

Like her sisters Camilla and Amelia, Alicia Nicole Hempleman-Adams MBE has brilliantly followed in her dad's adventurous footsteps.

In 2024, she set the women’s world record for the highest altitude in a hot-air airship (BX-03 class), reaching a whopping 1,261 m (4,137 ft) in Connecticut, USA. 

With her journey, which lasted one hour and five minutes, she also earned the record titles for the farthest and highest distance flown in a hot-air airship (female, FAI approved). 

After that, the British explorer once again made history as she completed the longest flight in an AX-04 class balloon, after a record-setting flight that totalled seven hours, 39 minutes and 30 seconds.

Alicia was appointed MBE in 2024 for her services to hot-air ballooning.