SWI1 is down… well done Kurt & Pascal,Eduard Spelterini would be very happy. But the race is still going on with two more teams aloft…   09.09.2009 0430: Team SUI 1 (Frieden/Witpraechtiger) landed safely  Kurt Frieden called to report about a safe landing. The two pilots had finished their race across Europe in huge eucalyptus... Read more ....

With the 53rd edition of the prestigious gas balloon race coming up, the community of Vernier can finally show off its own Coupe Gordon Bennett Street, “La Rue de la Coupe Gordon Bennett”. On Saturday September 5th, 16 aeronauts from Germany, Austria, Belgium, the United States, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will try... Read more ....

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... 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 ....