DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor

Although many people think the Sheaf is already full of it, this week’s “What the Sport?” is all about hot air — the sport of hot air balloon racing, that is.

The Gordon Bennett International Gas Balloon Race (or the Gordon Bennett Cup) is the most prestigious aeronautical race in the world, according to organizers. The rules aren’t complex — whichever team can manage to fly their balloon the furthest is crowned the winner.

Established in Paris, France, in 1906, the race is nearly a century old and was endorsed by wealthy sports enthusiast Gordon Bennett at a time when air transportation was in its infancy. Essentially, the millionaire playboy Bennett intended the race to boost innovation in aeronautic technology.

Interestingly, Bennett was also known for his eccentric behaviour and once showed up late and intoxicated to a party whereupon he decided to urinate in a fireplace in front of all the guests. If the unorthodox Bennett was wily enough to indiscretely answer nature’s call in front of a houseful of guests, it might be a fair assumption he attempted the feat from the altitude of a hot air balloon as well.

Usually lasting for days at a time, winning balloonists have travelled anywhere from 300 kilometres to 3,400 km. The race was put on hiatus in 1938 due to the Second World War and when it was resurrected in 1983, it still took a decade for a team to break the record of the last race. In 1938, the Polish team of Antoni Janusz and Franciszek Janik flew their balloon 1,692 km and only in 1993 when Austrians Josef Starkbaum and Rainer Röhsler flew 1,832 km was the 55-year drought broken.

This year’s installment of the Gordon Bennett Cup recently took place in Bristol, England and the Swiss team of Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witpraechtige snagged the longest distance. Unfortunately, the event was marred by tragedy due to the mysterious disappearance of a U.S. balloon team who were last reported flying over the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy, but have since been assumed by many to now be dead.

As fun and innocent as the sport of gas balloon racing might seem, the sport has more of its own infamous tragedies etched into the pages of history.

In 1923, five people were killed in the Bennett Cup after getting struck by lightning. And in 1983, American balloonists Maxie Anderson and Don Ida perished in a fall after their gondola detached from the balloon in an attempt to avoid East German airspace.

Perhaps the most bizarre of ballooning calamities came in 1992 when the Belarusian Air Force unexpectedly shot down and killed American competitors Alan Fraenckel and John Stuart-Jervis with a Mil Mi-24B attack helicopter, despite event organizers notifying the Belarusian government of the race months in advance. Nearly two decades have passed since this unfortunate incident and the Belarusian government has yet to issue a public apology for the brutish error.

Though airplanes have eliminated most demand for hot air balloons in modern times, this mode of transport serves a nostalgic purpose, reminding us of the simply bizarre measures humankind undertook to get their feet off the ground in the early twentieth century.

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image: Beverly & Pack/Flickr