Raleigh adventurer Jonathan Trappe this morning launched his cluster of 370 giant helium balloons from a soccer field in Caribou, Maine, in his effort to complete the first-ever cluster balloon flight across the Atlantic from U.S. soil.
Trappe, a consultant with Accenture’s office in Raleigh, flew across the English Channel in a cluster balloon system in 2010, and in 2011 flew across the Alps from France to Italy.
You can see a video of his launch this morning here. In a forward-thinking move, he used a boat as his gondola (basket) in case he gets ditched in the ocean.
You can track his progress across the Atlantic Ocean here.
In the history of flight, only two gas balloons have ever made it across the Atlantic from the United States: The Double Eagle II flight in 1978 and the Rosie O’Grady’s Balloon of Peace in 1984.