Around the world in 11 days - a record flight of Fedor Konyukhov

More recently, the famous Russian traveler Fedor Konyukhov completed his round-the-world trip on the world's largest Morton balloon and landed in western Australia. The Russian managed to fly around the Earth, covering about 35,000 km and rising to a height of 10,600 meters, in just 11 days. Thus, he immediately broke two world records set by a US resident Steve Fossett in 2002: according to the maximum distance that a balloon traveled (33,155 km) and the maximum height to which it ascended (10,200 km).

Konyukhov became the first person in the world who was able to make a non-stop flight around the world on the first attempt. The American, in turn, required six such attempts. At the start of July 12 from the city of Northam in Australia, Konyukhov had the main goal - to break the Fossett record and end his journey in less than 13 days - it took so much time for the American traveler to fly around the Earth. He coped with this task simply grandiose: his flight took 11 days, and even with one try!

Konyukhov's landing went well, except for a few bruises and abrasions. But in flight there were some troubles. As the Russian himself admits, the most terrible thing for him was to fly over the Indian Ocean during a thunderstorm, when the balloon began to blow down the wind towards Antarctica. In order to get out of the formed loop and find a passing stream, he had to climb to a height of 10,600 meters. As a result, the ball was able to catch the desired wind, but the stove failed, and the air temperature in the gondola quickly began to drop to below zero. The equipment iced up, the entire supply of bottled water froze - the pilot could neither really drink nor brew a packed ration to eat. So I had to sit two days before the finish landing on the same energy bars. But the good thing is that it ends well. Fedor Konyukhov safely reached his destination and won the glory of one of the greatest air travelers!