FAI 60th Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett - Gladbeck (GER)

Aviation sport: The FAI World Long Distance Gas Balloon Championship
FAI 60th Gordon Bennett Cup 2016
September 2016, Gladbeck (GER)
Gladbeck,
Germany, 19 September 2016 – The race is on! Gas-balloonists from a
dozen countries launched late on Sunday night 18 September 2016 at the
start of what is aviation’s oldest and most prestigious gas-balloon race
– the 60th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett.
Forty-eight pilots in
24 gas-balloons – two pilots in each balloon – set off from Gladbeck,
northwest Germany around midnight, launching into a moonlit sky and
heading south, carried along only by the wind.
Rising quickly into
the air each balloon was launched individually under the glare of
floodlights as a sound system played out the respective pilots’ national
anthem.