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The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett is the most prestigious event in aviation and the ultimate challenge for the balloon pilots and their equipment. The goal is simple: to fly the furthest distance from the launch site. The international balloon competition was initiated by adventurer and newspaper tycoon Gordon Bennett in 1906, when 16 balloons launched from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France. Little did the crowd of 200,000 spectators know that this race was to continue throughout the 20th... Read more ....

Start: Paris, Jardin des Tuleries, September 30th, 4 p.m. In Paris, public interest for the first Gordon-Bennett-Race was great. About 250.000 spectators may have been on the launch-field. Also among the aeronauts of the different countries, this new competition caught a lot of interest. Seven different nations entered balloons and with tension... Read more ....

Perhaps the most thrilling of all aeronautic sports is free ballooning.  The feeling one has, as the earth rapidly drops away from the ascending balloon, is one that cannot be described in words.  The earth becomes a map; cities appear as in Toyland, men as mere specs, and farm-lands as a checker board—each field a different color with just enough... Read more ....