Jean-Pierre François Blanchard was born the second son of seven children on the 4^th of July 1753 to his father, a multi-talented craftsman in Les Andelys-en-Normandie (France).

After only some basic education, he is finding himself in his father’s workshop where he quickly learns his trades. At the age of twelve he already invents a rat-trap where the beasts shoot themselves, and four years later he seems to have built a "mechanical" car (without horses) in which he made a journey from Andelys to Rouen, although no plans or precise descriptions were ever found in this respect. However, the newspaper "Le Journal de Paris" relates this voyage on the 17^th of August 1779, and announces several new voyages during the following weeks. The same newspaper also announces that J-P Blanchard is the inventor of a revolutionary new hydraulic pump, able to bring water to an elevation of three hundred feet at a rate of 82000 litres per hour. Having unsuccessfully demonstrated his latest invention at several occasions to the authorities, he decides in early 1781 to move to Paris and to start work on a project preoccupying him for several years already: The construction of a "bird like flying machine, with six wings and a tail".

On the 5^th of May 1782, the day announced by the "Journal de Paris" to be the day of the first flight, he is however unable, witnessed by a huge crowd, to take off and he becomes the laughing stock of Paris. On the 23^rd of May, the French scientist Joseph-Jérome Lefrançois de Lalande, member of the "Académie des Sciences" publicly declares that J-P Blanchard is a fool and that man will never fly.

J-P Blanchard, inspired by experiences conducted by Tiberio Cavallo, an Italian physicist from Napoli, the Barnabites brothers Stella and Cortenovis from Udine, and by Joseph Priestley’s work and book "Research and observations on different kinds of air", is enthusiastically following the Montgolfier Brothers’ and professor Charles’ experiences in 1783, and decides to build his own "lighter than air flying machine".

On the 2^nd of Mars 1784, J-P Blanchard is finally taking off for the first time in his hydrogen-filled aerostat from the Champ de Mars in Paris. On the 7^th of January in 1785, with his American physician friend and sponsor John Jeffries (1744 – 1819), J-P Blanchard successfully makes the first balloon flight across the English Channel from Dover to land after 2 hours and 25 minutes in the forest of Guines near Calais. On 26th August 1985 Blanchard was the first to make a flight over 200 km (straight line) from Lille to Servon

Honoured all over Europe, Blanchard became an ardent balloonist making many ascensions and demonstrations, including the second ever jump with a parachute, and he decided after his 44^th flight (Lübeck, Germany) to leave for the Americas with his son Julien Joseph, where in 1793 he made the first balloon voyage in the United States from Philadelphia. In 1796, after a flight from New-York, his son dies during a tornado destroying his workshop and, ruined, J-P Blanchard decided to go back to Europe.

Continuing his flights and experiences in Europe, in February 1808 he suffers a stroke during a flight in The Hague (Netherlands) and falls from his balloons from a height of 20 meters. He dies from the consequences in Paris on the 7^th of March 1809. He had made 60 ascents, a record that stood for about 50 years. 

LIVING Bruce Comstock

Bruce Comstock, born on the 24^th July 1943, has done much of what there is to do in sport ballooning, from winning major championships to setting world records, from serving his fellow balloonists to building a major balloon manufacturing company.

Comstock is one of the more successful ever competition balloon pilots. He has won one World and six U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships. Comstock won the World Hot Air Balloon Championship in June 1981, in Battle Creek, Michigan. He has won six U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships -- four more than anyone else. Comstock won the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships in 1972, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, and 1987. He finished in the top three places of the U.S. Nationals in 11 of the last 16 years of his competition career.

Comstock is a successful veteran of World Hot Air Balloon Championship competition. He has finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th in World Hot Air Balloon Championships. In addition to his win in the 1981 World Championship, these include 4th in 1973, in Albuquerque, New Mexico; 2nd in 1977, in York, England; 6th in 1979, in Uppsala, Sweden; 3rd in 1989, in Saga, Japan; and 7th in 1991, in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada.

Comstock has also set world balloon records for duration, distance and altitude. On June 17-18, 1980, he and fellow pilot David Schaffer became the first persons to fly a hot air balloon for more than a full day, setting a new world hot air balloon duration record of 24 hours, 7 minutes, 58 seconds. On December 3, 1980, he and fellow pilot Jeff VanAlstine bettered the existing world hot air balloon distance record by more than 80 miles in a flight of 494.6 statute miles, from Anderson, Indiana, to just south of Raleigh, North Carolina. On September 22, 1996, he and fellow pilot Steve Fossett set a new world altitude record for Roziere (temperature controlled gas) balloons, of 27,477 feet.

On January 15, 1994, Comstock more than doubled the world's hot air balloon Long Jump competition distance record by flying 645 statute miles on less than 37 gallons of fuel, from Atlantic, Iowa to Huntland, Tennessee. This flight was more than twice as far as the previous longest Long Jump flight, and was at the time the second longest distance ever recorded in a hot air balloon of this size. This performance has yet to be exceeded.

Comstock shared balloon technical advisor and launch director duties for two of the world's then longest distance balloon flights ever, and for the longest duration solo flight ever. These include the Solo Spirit non-stop flight half-way around the world from St. Louis, Missouri to eastern India in January 1997, the Pacific Peregrine non-stop flight from Seoul, Korea to Saskatchewan, Canada in February 1995, and the J Renee flight from Rockford, Illinois to central Myanmar in February/March of 2000. Comstock also designed and built the electronic balloon autopilots which made these solo flights possible, and has provided autopilots for other long distance flights. He has also been a technical advisor and launch team member for several other very long distance Roziere flights.

Comstock served on the International Juries for the 2nd World Hot Air Balloon Championship in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and the 1st World Gas Balloon Championship in Augsburg, West Germany, in 1976.

In 1977 Comstock received the Montgolfier Diploma, the world's highest honor for a balloonist, for his impressive, consistent performance in balloon competition. This award is granted by the International Aeronautic Federation (FAI), the world governing body for sport aviation.

Comstock has also served the ballooning community in a variety of ways. He was President of the Balloon Federation of America (BFA), the national organization of balloonists, and the U.S. delegate to the International Ballooning Committee of the International Aeronautic Federation from 1973 to 1975.

From 1971 to 1972 he was Editor of Ballooning, the magazine of the BFA. He was a member of the BFA Board of Directors from 1972 to 1975.

Comstock started flying balloons in 1970. He has been an active balloon pilot instructor since 1971. He has made more than 1,500 balloon flights (several thousand logged hours). He has a reputation among ballooning friends as a competent and cautious pilot.

Comstock has served as a Designated Examiner for balloon oral and flight tests for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and has been an FAA Designated Manufacturing Inspection Representative (DMIR) for purposes of inspecting newly manufactured balloons for airworthiness certification. He has received the FAA Service Award for preparing educational material on ballooning and instructing FAA personnel in the basics of safe ballooning.

He has piloted both gas and hot air airships (blimps). In a series of flights beginning in 1975, he developed techniques for safe night flight in hot air balloons.

Comstock is also a certificated airplane pilot.

Comstock was graduated by the University of Colorado and studied at The University of Michigan graduate school. His current focus is the planning and making of challenging balloon flights. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The meeting was attended by 25 voting Delegates, 3 voting Alternate Delegates, and there were 4 proxies, making a total of 32 votes. A total of 86 people attended the Conference.

For those who do not have easy access to the minutes, here are some of the highlights not covered elsewhere in this newsletter.

1. Jurors who took their latest test more than 5 years ago are to be retested by the Jury Board.
2. The Plenary approved updated and/or amended version of the following documents:
   Safety Handbook, Jury Board Handbook, Observer Handbook, Register of Observers, Observer Invitation Policy Document, Category 1 Event Sanction Procedures, Coupe Gordon Bennett Model Event Rules, AX Model Event Rules, BX Model Event Rules.
3. Observers for Continental Championships to only be from those countries relevant to the event.
4. The CIA Tracking Working Group formed to study technology, reporting and procedures for using tracking devices in balloons.
5. Register of Notable Flights and Achievements set up by the Records Review Subcommittee and documented in the CIA Internal Regulations.
6. A new Sanction Fee structure introduced by Event Planning and Advisory Service.
7. The World Ranking List Working Group established to study further development of the World Ranking List.
8. A number of motions to assist the organisers of the Coupe Gordon Bennett were approved.

MONTGOLFIER DIPLOMAS were awarded to

THE SANTOS DUMONT GOLD AIRSHIP MEDAL was awarded to

13th European Hot Air Balloon Championship, Vilnius, Lithuania, 4 – 13 July 2001 (Category 1)