The Greatest Adventure

by Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones

On the 9th of March, 1999, eight days into their flight, Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard were approaching Myanmar's air space. They had the following exchange with an air-traffic controller:

Air traffic control: Hotel Bravo-Bravo Romeo Alpha, what is your departure point and destination?

Brian Jones: Departure point, Château d'Oex, Switzerland. Destination, somewhere in northern Africa.

Air traffic control, after several seconds' silence: If you're going from Switzerland to northern Africa, what in hell are you doing in Myanmar?

Twelve days later the Breitling Orbiter 3 made a hard but safe landing in the Egyptian desert. Their successful circumnavigation, the first, put Piccard and Jones into the record books for distance (25,361 miles) and duration (477.47 hours aloft). Around the World in 20 Days tells the story of their flight, and the obstacles--both natural and manmade--they had to overcome. Struggling to get the balloon back into the jet stream when they had strayed too far south was one thing, but negotiating with dozens of countries for the right to fly in their air space was just as challenging. Even choosing a landing site was problematic: "Mali is mainly desert, and has lions, leopards etc.," while the Nigerians were hesitant, the Libyans wouldn't allow rescue planes to be brought in, and Egypt gave the balloon permission to overfly its borders but not to land. On the ground, the team's support system spelled out the situation to the Egyptians: "Listen--the balloon is running out of fuel. If the pilot doesn't have permission to land, he'll have to declare a full emergency, and you'll be obliged by the international rules to deal with it." The Egyptian controller replied, "In that case, I give you permission."

Readers looking for edge-of-their-seats adventure may be disappointed; the authors tend to downplay the amount of danger they were often in. Indeed, the good humor in the cramped gondola camouflaged much of the scrambling taking place on the ground as the support crews worked to ensure the safety of the pilots. Sometimes the narrative, told in alternating passages by Piccard and Jones, descends into technical detail about flight levels, wind speeds, and directions. ("The required flight level will be between 260 and 280, with tracks between 093 and 098, and speed around 35 knots until 00:00 Z.") More often, however, the book glides along as smoothly as these two men who, in Piccard's words, "took off as pilots, flew as friends, and landed as brothers." --Sunny Delaney

Genres: Adventure, Nonfiction, Aviation, Travel, Biography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Bertrand Picard is a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist. Along with Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe.

He was born in Lausanne, Vaud, a Swiss canton, into a family of explorers. His grandfather Auguste Piccard was a balloonist and his father, Jacques Piccard was an undersea explorer. He currently is trying to perform the first round-the-world solar flight, where he is the initiator, chairman, and pilot.

Reviews

[Michael Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A APL Recycled Reads find. What a wonderful story of Team work, dedication, amazing weather forecasting ability, Devine Providence, good luck and two really nice people who achieved an aviation record while remaining "grounded" as people.

[A Mig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazing story of the first successful round-the-world balloon trip. Autobiographic, the authors share with us their historic adventure, from the preparation of the Breitling Orbiter 3 project in Switzerland to their return as heroes in Egypt via their stressful journey across continents and oceans. We get to know Bertrand and Brian at a personal level as they describe their time in the tiny capsule, their relationships on board but also with their team and families. We learn that their success was a combination of perseverance, technology, team expertise (e.g. the meteo guys) and sheer luck!

There was a nice touch of stoicism all along, about the importance of living in the Present (instead of being depressed by the Past and anxious of the Future), the purpose of a fulfilling life in a sustainable world, and accept that one cannot control the elements. The balloon makes the perfect metaphor for Life in that context: "In life you have the same kind of storms that can destroy you when you are ballooning and you are anxious about the future. There are moments when you have no wind and you are depressed by your stagnation; at other moments, everything seems so easy and smooth that you wonder why other people find life (or ballooning) so difficult [...] Life is a huge and difficult adventure because you are facing the unknown..." (p. 430).

It was nice also to read about the attempts by other stars such as Steve Fossett and Richard Branson, and about the illustrious Piccard family. I now want to read more about the father's and grand father's own achievements (back to the 1930s).

An unforgettable read.

[Kimberly Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter and I read this one together. What a wonderfully inspirational read. All pre-teens should read this. Bertrand Piccard lays out the details of what it takes to do something historic. And better yet, to do it for the betterment of the world, not to promote yourself. Now I have to check out Winds of Hope, the charity foundation that he and Brian Jones conceived of during their flight. A wonderful read. Don't miss the last two chapters.

[Flo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je mets 3 parce que ça n'est pas de la grande littérature, mais le sujet en soi m'a beaucoup plus ! Une épopée au (presque) long court, au gré des éléments, dans des conditions spartiates, des jolis moments de stress, de belles émotions...

Pour moi, c'était surtout une grande découverte de l'aérostation et de ses merveilleux ballons, c'est complètement dingue ce monde ! Faire le tour du monde juste en se laissant porter par les vents, c'est ahurrissant ! Merci pour la découverte.

[Marc Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the explorer's mind and in this book, we really learn about obstacles, team spirit, and being persistent. Bertrand comes from a family of explorers and it is so interesting to get an insight into this first-ever succeded journey around the globe. Since this adventure Bertrand has continued and was also the first person to fly in a solar-powered aircraft, Solar Impulse. With his foundation Solar Impulse, they have connected 1000+ profitable tech solutions for the environment! He is really a man of action that despises wishful thinking.
I had a very interesting conversation with Bertrand on my podcast Inside Ideas and you can find episode 111 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48B6q...

Or visit any of these links:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/profita...
https://medium.com/inside-ideas/dr-be...

[Clayton Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been on my shelf since it was signed by one of the pilots years ago at a Breitling promo event in Park City. For whatever reason I hadn't picked it up, but once I did I couldn't put it down. Amazing account of a fantastic journey.

[Mimilaila · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great book to read in the summer holiday. Very adventurous and I learned that travelling with a hot air balloon is not as easy as one thinks.

[Rebecca Prinster-Caloca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great story... I also really liked that the narration was split between Piccard and Jones, which gave you a better sense of their personalities.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING BOOK!! It talks about ecology, the psychological impact on the pilots, the story and adventure, all of that in one book! It's very well written, with intriguing moments and stories.

[Nathan Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit technical and scientific in places but overall a good read with an interesting and impressive story