From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Per Lindstrand (born in 1948) is a Swedish aeronautical engineer, pilot and adventurer.
He is particularly known for his series of record-breaking trans-oceanic hot air balloon flights and, later, attempts to be the first to fly a Rozière balloon around the Earth
- all with British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson.
Lindstrand Balloons is a manufacturer of hot air balloons and other aerostats.
The company was started by Swedish-born pilot and aeronautical designer Per Lindstrand in Oswestry,
England, as Colt Balloons (later Thunder & Colt Balloons, then Lindstrand Balloons) in 1978.
Lindstrand Balloons is known for its leading-edge engineering, which includes sophisticated testing and production facilities.
Lindstrand Balloons designed and built all of the hot air balloons flown by Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson on their record breaking flights first across the Atlantic Ocean in 1987 and then the Pacific Ocean in 1990.
Lindstrand's then designed and built three Rozière balloons that Per Lindstrand and Branson (and others, including aeronautical engineer Alex Ritchie, and adventurer, Steve Fossett) used in their unsuccessful attempts to circumnavigate the Earth by balloon.
Per Lindstrand played an instrumental role in making these flights possible, and was pilot for all of them.
Record flights
A 1998 attempt at an around-the-world balloon flight by Branson, Fossett, and Lindstrand ends in the Pacific Ocean on December 25, 1998.
From early in his business career, Lindstrand's main interest and ambition lay in pushing the boundaries of lighter-than-air technology and he subsequently captured every absolute world record for hot air balloon flight.
In January 1991, in the Virgin Pacific Flyer (a hot air balloon measuring 74,000 m³ (2,600,300 ft³), designed and built by Thunder & Colt), Lindstrand and Branson completed the longest flight in lighter-than-air history when they flew 6761 miles from Japan to Northern Canada.
Their flight set two new world records for distance and duration and they broke their own ground speed record, recording 245 mph (395 km/h).
The Virgin Pacific Flyer still remains the largest hot air balloon ever built.
In an attempt to be the first to fly a balloon of any type around the world, in December 1998.
Lindstrand, partnered by Richard Branson and Steve Fossett, flew for 7 days and covered over 20,000 km in a Rozière balloon, launching from Morocco and landing in the Pacific Ocean near to rescue services in Hawaii.
Rather less successful was his attempt in 1983 to achieve the world altitude record for hot-air balloons.
Sponsored by the English and Welsh Milk Industry, a vast balloon emblazoned with "Milk's Gotta Lotta Bottle" was prepared for launch to be broadcast on live television early one Saturday morning.
Adverse weather conditions led to the mission being aborted: instead viewers were treated to a horrifying spectacle when the balloon filled with air whilst being towed along the ground.
Lindstrand, holding one of the ropes, was lifted 30 feet into the air and had to make a vital decision: did he let go and fall from that dangerous height or hold on and risk having to drop from an even greater height?
He let go and viewers saw his alarming fall and heard the sickening thud as he hit the ground.
Mercifully, his only injury was a dislocated shoulder.
Source: Wikipedia
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