The French team (FRA1) won the “53e Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett”, after 4 days of flight, landing near the airport of Lagos, in the extreme south-west of Portugal.Sébastien ROLLAND and Vincent LEYS have flown 1587 km,overtaking the Swiss 1 team of 17 km!  As required by the rules, France will be the organizer of the 55th Coupe Aéronautique... Read more ....

All teams safely landed now. FRA 1, Sébastien Rolland and Vincent Lëys, just confirmed safe landing in Portugal, Lagos Airport area. Congratulations to all teams!

09.09.2009 08:00: Bulletin Day 4 Good morning! There is still one team in the air. The French pilots Sebastien Rolland and Vincent Leys are approaching the Portugese airspace these minutes. They are now airborne since more than 80 hours. Now, as the landing positions of all other teams are known, these two pilots will certainly try to benefit and... Read more ....

08..09.2009 19:00 loc (tuesday): What a day! Thanks to these brave pilots, we on the surface could enjoy an exciting race on the screens wherever we are on the world. The Coupe Aéronautique is approaching its end. 6 teams are still flying. All these teams have achieved a distance of more than 1.000 kms straight line from their launch-point in Geneva.... Read more ....

Tonight we received more information about the landing of BEL1 in Algeria. It seems that Algerian authorities were very helpful. Boats under the balloon approaching the shore, and police, the army (with loaded guns…), and medical services at the landing spot. After packing, our brave pilots had to go to a hospital for a complete medical check-up,... Read more ....

BEL1 landed very well in a melon field in the Algerian Azeffoun area. The pilots and the equipment are okay and this is also the case with the other teams. Only the Finns got a little bit bruised during the landing. Luckily the locals are very helpful. Tomorrow we try to get the 3 teams together, and try to arrange an easy retrieve.