2-839-737 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Basic structure is yellow and orange with the inscription, Breitling Orbiter 3. Upper structure houses burners and equipment. On March 21, 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Bryan Jones guided Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to fly around the world non-stop, to a safe landing on a desolate stretch of desert in Western Egypt. It was a happy ending to a story that had begun in June 1980, when English pilot and balloon builder Don Cameron announced that a group of adventurers planned to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon. That original project did not result in a launch, but it did establish the goal.