Balloonists Set 2nd Record, Land Safely
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GENEVA — It wasn’t the prize they so badly wanted, but the Europeans who tried unsuccessfully to orbit the globe in a balloon notched a second world record Friday before landing safely today in a Myanmar rice paddy 90 miles north of the Burmese capital.
The crew of the Breitling Orbiter 2 set the record for the longest nonstop unrefueled flight by any aircraft on the final leg of its journey from the Swiss Alps.
The previous record was set in 1986 when Dick Rutan of California and Jeana Yeager circled the world in nine days and four minutes in the experimental twin-engine light plane Voyager.
On Tuesday, the Breitling team had broken the world record for the longest time spent in the air in a balloon.
Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, Belgium’s Wim Verstraeten and Andy Elson of Britain had been in the air since Jan. 28, when they set off from the Swiss village of Chateau d’Oex.
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