The event was organized by Exclusive Ballooning and sponsored by recruitment processing outsourcing specialists Datum RPO.

“It is fantastic to be able to organize an event which includes so many European pilots and helps to raise the profile of ballooning around the world,” Louise Moore, Operations Manager for Exclusive Ballooning, tells The Balloon Journal. “Ballooning has a wonderful community ethos and can be a family oriented hobby or a highly competitive sport. We are very proud to be able to introduce people to ballooning and encourage and inspire new pilots.”

The previous record, coincidentally set six years earlier to the day, involved 49 balloons completing the flight.

The Datum RPO bespoke hot air balloon led the pack over the 35km distance of water and was piloted by company director James Strickland.

“What a fantastic flight in perfect weather conditions,” Strickland says. “Having flown across the Channel in 2011, this time was truly amazing to break the Guinness Book of Record attempt. Of all the flights I have ever done, this has to be number one.”

Exclusive Ballooning’s Director Andrew Holly flew alongside Strickland in the official Lord Mayor’s Appeal hot air balloon, which was enjoying its maiden flight, having been unveiled for the first time on the launch site that day.

“Thank you to all the pilots and crews who travelled so far to make this truly an international and unforgettable flight,” Holly says. “The 2011 flight was my favorite of all time and we were thrilled to be able to give so many pilots from all over Europe the opportunity to have the same experience. It has been a fantastic day and I think this morning’s flight is now top of my list.”

Pilots from 10 different countries took part in the event and plans for the flight have been in the works for months. The flight was on standby since March 5, with Exclusive Ballooning eventually landing on a perfect date with optimal flying conditions.

“The weather conditions needed for this flight are very specific and the conditions on Friday were near perfect,” Moore says. “The 2011 flight was on standby for six months before a suitable slot appeared. We have been on standby for only five weeks for this flight. It must have been fate though as the 2011 flight was on April 7, too.”

Alan Turner, a Cotswolds pilot of the Joinerysoft Balloon, took part in the flight with his wife Kirsten, while his teenage sons, Robert and Matthew, acted as the balloon’s crew.

“It was a true family adventure,” he says. “The weather conditions were perfect. There was a decent amount of steerage at different heights where the winds were in a slightly different direction, this meant that we could choose whether to stay within the center of the pack or go it alone at the edge. We chose to stay in the center.”

Overall, the Joinerysoft was in the air for 2 hours and 30 minutes, more than half over the water.

“The most disconcerting thing was not being able to see the French Coast due to the haze,” Turner says. “We flew over the White Cliffs of Dover and could only see an expanse of sea as far as the eye could see. Land appeared through the haze when we were only five miles away from the French Coast.”

Turner notes that being able to fly across an expanse of water such as the English Channel is pretty remarkable in its own right, but the fact that it was an attempt to break a world record made the flight even more special.

“It’s only thanks to the hard work and efforts of organizers Exclusive Ballooning that a flight of this magnitude becomes possible,” he says. “Such a prestigious event introduces hot air ballooning to a new audience. It would be great if hot air ballooning as a hobby became more accessible to young people.”

Nick Langley, managing director of Airship & Balloon Company Ltd., flew Prison Stuart, one of the characters from the forthcoming movie, Despicable Me 3. He was joined on the day by his co-pilot, Susan Carden, and ground crew, Robin and Graham.

“I have been a balloon pilot for 30 years and have always dreamed of flying across the English Channel, but have not had the opportunity as the very specific weather requirements for a safe crossing are very rare,” he says. “The excitement on Friday was amazing and the trip went very smoothly, so we were able to enjoy every minute. To be part of a World Record is a very important part of my ballooning career.”

According to Langley, the balloonists took off from just outside Dover and landed south of Calais at 8:23 in absolutely ideal weather conditions.

“The distance covered was 32 miles and our average speed was 14 mph, although we did reach 22 mph at one point in the flight,” he says. “We cruised at 1,000 feet above sea level, but did climb to 3,200 feet for a short time. The view was extraordinary and we could still see Dover, half way across the Channel, but France was very hazy. We landed safely in a large grass field, just a few miles inland from the coast and met a couple of very friendly local people, including the farmer. We gave him a bottle of whisky as a thank you and then our ground crew arrived and we packed up the balloon and returned to the UK.”

Other key supporters had their own bespoke balloons flying including Omega Resource Group, Aberdeen Asset Management, Keltbray, Longleat, Hospital Records, Silverline, Renishaw and Ricoh.

“We are hugely proud of our achievement and are still looking through the hundreds of photos of the flight and receiving dozens of thank you messages,” Moore says. “Social media has played a big role in allowing this flight to be shared globally and in particular within the ballooning community.”

In doing so, the company landed in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the smallest airship in the world.

Thanks to the success of this smaller airship, which has an 80 m³ volume, now the company is building similar and larger airships with a 25,000 m³ volume, which could transport 40-foot containers in desert areas.

“The airship is called NATAC for Navette Aérienne de Transport Automatique de Containers. The translation in English is Automatic Air Shuttle for the Transport of Containers,” says Arnaud Siegel, technical manager for Voliris. “The structure uses buoyancy and aerodynamic lift and has STOL [short take-off and landing] configuration.”

The airship can fly 500 km maximum, land and dispatch the fret, then come back without refueling.

“It’s very important to insist that it’s an automatic system; it means that anybody can have the control on the flight, or the control of the airship,” Siegel says. “Whereas for classis UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), there is a pilot on the ground who can pilot the UAV. For security issue, we do not want that a person can change the mission.”

For the maximum distance (500 km), the average flight time is five hours (range 500 km and speed more than 100 km per hour).

Helium gas, which is lighter than air, lifts most of the structure (envelope, tail, metal structure, landing gear, etc.) and the aerodynamic mechanism lifts the payload (container) and fuel, says Siegel. Kerosene is also a unique fuel that’s involved.

“It’s steered exactly like a plane, with pitch, bend and roll–thanks to the horizontal and vertical tailfins,” he says. “It uses two Turboprop 5000 hp (for propulsion), like a regional aircraft.”

The airship requires two people to control the operating system on the ground for take off and landing but there is no pilot (or passengers).

It can fly at an altitude of 3,000 meters and can attain a speed of 150 km/h. It’s not like a helicopter. It doesn’t have VTOL (vertical take-off and landing), as it takes off in an 800-meter unprepared airstrip. It can land on any surface that isn’t water.

As for wind speed, on the ground it can fasten on its mast at 80 knots (150km/h), and while flying, it depends on the mission, but it can take off and land with 30 knots (55kmh). However, the company plans not to fly in rain or severe winds.

“It could resist on the ground to severe conditions,” he says. “We do not need a hangar to protect it. We have a mast. Besides, we assemble and disassemble the airship in the place of the mission.”

The cost of the airship program is 300 million euros, and one NATAC costs about 10 million euros.

Desert areas on our planet stretch for 45 million square kilometers, so Voliris sees a lot of practical applications for its airship and the company expects to sell close to 2,000 units over the next 20 years, with the main target being north of Africa, North America, and Russia.

“The container is carried between the rigid structure and it can lift 30.4 tons and a 40-foot container,” Siegel says. “It can be utilized in any desert area where these is no infrastructure.”

Currently, there are no rules and regulations in place for this sort of aircraft, and the company has no plans to certify it as of yet. Siegel notes there are no regulatory requirements because such aircraft don’t exist, so the company will need to build them and test them and write all the regulatory requirements.

“We just need the authorization of the government in place,” Siegel says. “We want to manufacture all the parts of the airship in France. We put everything into ten containers to deliver the airship. We assemble the airship on site, use it for the mission with the authorization of the government, and disassemble the airship, putting all the parts in containers to send them to another mission.”

Youtube video: Flight of the smallest airship.

A patent filed by Amazon Technologies, Inc., in 2014, for an “airborne fulfillment center”—a warehouse suspended beneath a giant blimp at 45,000 feet—utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones for item delivery—was approved last December.

The company has already been experimenting with drones as part of its Amazon Prime Air program, which will deliver packages up to five pounds to customers in 30 minutes or less using drones. This delivery method is being tested in-house and the first delivery was made on December 7 in the UK.

But since powering up drones from the ground requires lots of energy, Amazon is hoping to store the products in huge floating airship warehouses, which would hold and launch a network of drones to float items down to customers.

The patent request provides an example: a user may browse an e-commerce website and place an order for an item that is in the inventory of the AFC. Upon placing the order for the item, fulfillment instructions may be sent to the AFC and a UAV within the AFC may engage the item for delivery to the user. When the UAV departs the AFC, it may descend from the high altitude of the AFC using little or no power other than to guide the UAV towards its delivery destination and/or to stabilize the UAV as it descends.

Another paragraph of the patent description reads: “The use of an AFC and shuttles also provides another benefit in that the AFC can remain airborne for extended periods of time. In addition, because the AFC is airborne, it is not limited to a fixed location like a traditional ground based materials handling facility. In contrast, it can navigate to different areas depending on a variety of factors, such as weather, expected demand, and/or actual demand.”

Dr. Barry E. Prentice, professor of Supply Chain Management, at the I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba and the former director of the Transport Institute, notes that the way Amazon’s plan was presented has red flags for anyone familiar with the technology.

“They are talking about putting something up at 45,000 feet, which is understandable because you’re not involved with any other aircraft flying at that height, and second is you don’t have a lot of wind and you can look down and see a lot of area for the drones, so those would be the good things,” Dr. Prentice tells the Balloon Journal. “The downside is that at 45,000 feet there is not a lot of atmosphere and since the airship by definition gets its lift by displacing the weight of the air it replaces, you have to have a very big airship to lift anything at that height.”

Dr. Prentice says that Amazon would need a “monstrous” device to do that and doesn’t feel that the materials available today would allow it to be up there safe and secure. He also feels that the aircraft that are proposed to resupply the “warehouse” will have some difficulty carrying any large weights at that altitude.

Another challenge is once the drones and supplies leave the aircraft, the aircraft will become lighter and there needs to be a way to deal with that increased buoyancy, and that might require using hydrogen gas—although that’s not a proven method as of yet.

“I do like the idea that the drone taking a parcel down from the airship at that height is not using a lot of power to drop it down and then you would have less weight coming back, so that would certainly extend the range of the drones,” he says. “[And though] small drones make a lot of sense, the issue with that technology is how you dispatch them around households, especially when you’re maneuvering around streets and over houses will present some legal issues.”

Another aircraft expert, who preferred not to be identified, was even more skeptical about the idea and thinks it’s more of a publicity stunt by the company. He feels that while the idea seems somewhat practical on paper, that the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) regulatory guidelines concerning drones would be too much of a hindrance for it to feasibly work.

The FAA does however permit drones for the transportation of material for compensation or hire, provided the operator complies with all the provisions of the rule, including that the operator must keep the UAV within his/her sight, the flight is conducted within visual line-of-sight and not from a moving vehicle, external loads must be securely attached and cannot adversely affect the flight characteristics or controllability of the aircraft, and the aircraft with payload must weigh less than 55 lbs. at takeoff.

Still, Amazon’s delivery method is more ambitious than the FAA rules, and most aviation experts agree that the regulatory requirements to get something like this done would be restricting.