PRESS RELEASE
Lausanne - 7 June 1999
CIA BALLOON & AIRSHIP HALL OF FAME
1999 INDUCTEES
The following have been inducted into the CIA Balloon and Airship Hall of Fame. Check the FAI Ballooning Commission Achievements web pages for other Hall of Fame inductees.
LIVING
Mr. Alfred ECKERT
Alfred Eckert has been a prominent German gas balloonist since 1953 and is known for his colourful personality and his high quality collection of ballooning antiques and memorabilia as well as for his flying exploits.
Born in 1916, Mr. Eckert spent his earlier years as a painter, photographer, publisher and graphic designer in Augsburg, Germany. He made his first balloon flight in May of 1953 and earned his gas balloon license in May of 1955 (he got his hot air balloon license in 1983).
He earned the German Free Balloon Golden Achievement Medal no. 11 in 1957 and the FAI Montgolfier Diploma for the year 1959.
Some remarkable flights of his were:
1959: Landed on a glacier and was rescued by aircraft.
1960: Crossed the English Channel from Lydd, UK to Brá gge, Belgium in 4 hours, 15 minutes.
1990: Made his 1000th gas balloon flight on October 27, 1990. Total of 3590 hours & 55,198 km.
1998: Made his 1020th gas balloon flight together with Jojo Maes (1213) and Helma Sjuts (1118).
Mr. Eckert also created the famous Balloon Museum in Gersthofen, Germany (just north of Augsburg and close to the club launch site). The majority of the exhibits are from his personal collection. The museum opened in 1986. As an author, Mr. Eckert has written six books on ballooning and has been the publisher and editor of the bi-monthly magazine "Der Freiballon" since 1976. His books are:
POSTHUMOUS
CHARLES GREEN (1785 - 1870)
Charles Green was born in London, UK on January 31, 1785. He came to ballooning in an unusual way. While experimenting with a device he had built to making gas to light his house, Mr. Green discovered that the final stages of the process created almost pure hydrogen gas, which he tested in small toy balloons.
He made his first ascent on July 19, 1821 from St. James Park in the George IV, Royal Coronation Balloon which was filled with coal gas, the first time such a gas had been used in manned ballooning. Though coal gas had less lifting power than hydrogen, is was much cheaper and also readily available in every major city.
He became a professional balloonist and had made 200 ascents by 1835, including many night ascents with fireworks attached to the bottom of his car. He returned to serious aeronautics in 1836 with a thrilling flight from England to Germany in the Royal Vauxhall Balloon (later renamed the Nausau). This flight introduced the idea of flying all night as well as the invention of the trail rope to act as ballast at to facilitate landing.
By the time Mr. Green retired in 1852 he had logged more than 500 flights. He died from heart failure at the age of eighty-five on March 26, 1870.
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