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Andy
Elson
Balloonist
/ Engineer
Andy
Elson,
from Wells, Somerset, is an aeronautical engineer.
He is also pilot and project director of QinetiQ
1, the project name for his and Colin Prescot’s
attempt to set a new manned balloon high altitude world
record. He is
responsible for the design and build of their balloon.
Andy
was an apprentice at the Rolls Royce Technical College in
Filton, Bristol and then went on to study Aeronautical
Engineering. During the 1980s he became an enthusiastic
balloonist. After competing at world-class level, he began
to research and develop the survival systems required for
high-altitude flights. In 1991, he piloted the world's
first hot air balloon flight over Mount Everest.
Andy
set a new all-time flight duration record in 1998, and
promptly broke it the next year on his Cable &
Wireless flight with Colin Prescot, which lasted 17 days,
18 hours and 25 minutes. For this they were each presented
with the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, awarded just 40 times
in the last 100 years.
Since
1999, Andy has worked with American adventurer Steve
Fossett on his solo attempts to fly a balloon around the
world, designing and building the Solo Spirit gondola and
advising Fossett during his flight from eastern Australia
to Brazil.
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Colin
Prescot
Balloonist
/ Aerial Photographer
Colin
Prescot, from Stockbridge, Hampshire is Managing
Director of Flying
Pictures Ltd, the world's largest operator of hot air
balloons and leader of aerial film production and
facilities. He will co-pilot QinetiQ
1 and relay pictures of the flight back to earth.
Colin began ballooning at
the age of 25 when an Afghan princess took him on his
first flight. Colin continued his interest in hot air
balloons by founding Flying Pictures, which counts
Sylvester Stallone's 'Cliffhanger' and the last 8 James
Bond films among its credits.
Over the years Colin has
managed to combine his background in advertising with his
hobby, operating many of the commercial advertising
balloons seen in the summer skies and at balloon festivals
around the world.
In 1981 Colin made the
first ever hot-air balloon flight through a whole night,
and later set the record for longest balloon flight in the
British Isles, which still stands.
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