Singhania creates World Record
A couple of days ago, news views and analysis wrote about Mission Impossible 70K. Today we are proud to inform that Dr. Singhania has broken the world record.
As reported in the Mid-Day
Dr Vijaypat Singhania has broken the world record for the highest altitude reached in a hot-air balloon.
At around 8.50 am today, he reached 69,000 feet, surpassing the current world record which stands at 64,997 feet and then began his descent.
The aviator-entrepreneur took off on what is expected to be a five-hour flight at precisely 6.42 am from the racecourse polo grounds.
The atmosphere at the racecourse grounds early this morning was stirring. Gautam addressed the press at 4 am saying that he was ”nervous” about his father’s attempt. Dr Singhania joked, ”If they were not nervous, I would be very worried!”
The patch-work multi-coloured balloon, slept idle till 5.30 am till it started to come to life. Air was pumped into it and the giant quilt awoke, fully inflated and vertical by 6 am. The burners came on, giving the balloon an orange glow. The moon shone bright, as if beckoning Dr Singhania, towards it.
A band started to play, fire engines revved up, television screens on the ground beamed images of Dr Singhania in the balloon capsule, carrying with him a thousand good wishes, and the countdown began. The announcer started 10,9,8,7,6.
As a rousing cheer went up and at the count of 0 there was a resounding bon voyage as the balloon or ‘envelope’ as it is called, lifted and moved towards Haji Ali over the Arabian Sea.
It hovered there as people squinted at it, as if static, pronouncing one final goodbye and in 20 minutes (by 7 am) Vijaypat Singhania and his magnificent flying machine, a contraption he called, ”a piece of art as much as a piece of science” had disappeared from the naked human eye.
