Balloonist Reaches World Record Height
Many stories involving the Victorinox pocket-knife are connected with travel and transport, be it by hot air balloon or mountain bike. Here we recount the two events which would have turned out very differently, or failed outright, if it had not been for the knife.
An article appeared in the famous London newspaper The Times on 7 June 1988 about a new world height record for hot-air balloon flights. However, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones made the first round-the-world flight by hot-air balloon in March 1999. They carried with them an Officer’s Knife and the Swiss Tool from Victorinox. the attempt very nearly failed and only got off the ground thanks to a Swiss Army Officer’s Knife, which the pilot of the balloon used to cut the ropes to two sacks of sand, allowing the journey skywards to begin. The following report was sent via the official channel of the Swiss Embassy in London to Victorinox AG in Ibach: «Lindstrand (the pilot) was born in Sweden but lives in Great Britain. Last year, together with the entrepreneur Richard Branson, he was one of the first pilots to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. Yesterday he succeeded in breaking the world height record following just a couple of false starts. In addition, because of high winds Lindstrand had to wait for more than a week to get a good start window.
Two Forgotten Sacks
Yesterday morning however, at 5.42 a.m., he set off 27 miles north of Laredo in a pressurised aluminium capsule. Weather conditions were ideal: blue sky with a light wind. The trickiest moment was at the start: due to an oversight, Lindstrand had failed to release two 100-pound sacks of sand. He had to climb down from his capsule and cut them off using a Swiss Army Officer’s Knife.
The balloon, carrying the two adventurers, then flew up to the new world record height of 11 miles (17.7 kilometres). The Victorinox pocket knife thus played an important part in the attainment of a world record for flying and physical endurance.
