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.