18th December 2006: The Frontier Of Space
A world class opportunity
Andy Elson is a world authority on life support systems and Space survival.
A veteran balloonist, he is fully conversant with extreme adventures planned with minimum risk to human life.
And he is British.
A daring and dramatically visual journey is now planned as a showcase for British science and technology by setting a new world altitude record for a hot air balloon.
The objective is to fly to 25 kilometres above Earth on the very threshold of Space.
Over Britain.
About Andy Elson
Andy has flown by balloon more times to over 40,000 feet than anyone in history.
In 1991 he was the first balloonist to fly over Mount Everest.
Throughout the 1990s he designed and built all the capsules for all the international attempts to be the first to fly a balloon around the world (except for Richard Branson's). His customers included the Swiss Breitling team and Steve Fossett.
In 1999 he broke the world endurance record for any non-stop sub-orbital flying machine when he flew Cable & Wireless more than 12,000 miles from Spain to the Pacific in 18 days. For this he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club (previously only awarded to a handful of pioneers such as Louis Bleriot, the Wright Brothers, Alcock and Brown, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins)
In 2002 he trained as a cosmonaut in Moscow.
In 2003 he attempted to launch QinetiQ 1, the biggest balloon in history, from a research ship off St Ives. It failed (unfortunately not everything works first time).
In 2004 he designed and built - in Britain - a capsule to carry five astronauts to the international space station. This was not publicised due to contractual terms. Suffice to say another very satisfied customer¯.
In 2005 he designed and built a pressurised capsule and balloon to carry Air Commodore Vijaypat Singhania to the current world hot air balloon altitude record of 70,000 feet above Mumbai.
The science of success
When Vijaypat Singhania came to Andy in 2005, no one had flown a hot air balloon to higher than 64,000 feet and even that was once thought unsurpassable. The main reason was the difficulty of developing any kind of burner to combust a fuel in such a rarified space atmosphere devoid of molecules.
Andy built a 60 foot long chamber from which the air could be pumped out to create a near vacuum to simulate the altitudes targeted. After six months of intensive trials and research he succeeded in designing and firing a burner fuelled by kerosene at an altitude equivalent to 80,000 feet above sea level. With more time he is confident he can significantly improve on this achievement.
Vijaypat Singhania subsequently flew in Andy's capsule to 70,000 feet over Mumbai, powered by Andy's revolutionary burner system and kept alive by Andy's on board life support systems.
The dress rehearsal for this new project has therefore already taken place. And it worked first time.
With further lessons learned Andy can fly higher. In Britain. For Britain.
An epic journey
This is a big story and it is visually breathtaking stuff.
There are precedents.
The audited media coverage of Cable & Wireless showed PR value worth more than £22 million in the UK (source: Telex Monitors) and an estimated global value of $90 million.
Before the aborted launch of QinetiQ 1 the core audience awareness of the brand was 8%. After, it was 44%. The Company's website received a 3,000 per cent increase in visitor traffic prior to the unsuccessful attempt¯ (source: Millward Brown).
The amount of PR value generated for the mission ran into tens of millions¯ (source: QinetiQ IQ Magazine).
The nationals all picked up the story with even the Sun lauding QinetiQs scientific achievement; in addition to the BBC it was covered by international broadcasters CNN, ABC, NBC, a German documentary crew and there was online reporting in Russia, South Africa and South America (source: Campaign magazine).
When Vijaypat Singhania rose from Mumbai Racecourse in the pre-dawn darkness of 26th November 2005, the stands were packed out with crowds who had waited patiently all night to witness the spectacle. The next morning (a Sunday) the story covered the front page of every major newspaper in the sub continent. Vijaypat is now a household name and a hero throughout his home nation.
A Goosebump adventure
Andy and his team need at least six months to prepare for this major milestone in aviation.
The launch will be from Devon and the conclusion of the flight will be a splashdown in the Irish Sea.
A remote controlled 4-camera TV show will be recorded inboard and outboard of the space capsule to bring live and recorded pictures for onward transmission around the world. Images to make the hair stand on end:
One man and his mission.
An ink black sky.
The biggest hot air balloon in History.
The curvature of the Earth below.
The media interest will be built throughout the construction and trials phase of the project, culminating in a piece of aviation history which will live in the memory for years to come.
The adventure will be capable of attracting many millions of pounds of TV and press coverage to bring the sponsor a lasting awareness and an image by association of pioneering, innovation, excitement and courage.
