BALLOONISTS AWAIT JUST-RIGHT WEATHER FOR GLOBAL VOYAGE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992                   TAG: 9202020119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BALLOONISTS AWAIT JUST-RIGHT WEATHER FOR GLOBAL VOYAGE
Two U.S. pilots and a Russian astronaut who plan to make the first round-the-world balloon flight said they would take off as soon as weather over the North Atlantic improves, probably sometime this week.
Their huge balloon, Earthwinds, was inflated with helium Tuesday night in preparation for a flight of about 22,000 miles that could last up to a month.
The balloon captain, Larry Newman of Scottsdale, Ariz., said the Earthwinds was ready for the voyage and only awaiting clearance from the meteorologists advising the balloonists.
The crew members had hoped to take off from their base at the Air Dock hangar in Akron, Ohio, Saturday or today, but forecasters were concerned about a storm over the Atlantic.
Although the Earthwinds will fly at 35,000 feet, which is well above low-altitude storms, high winds and rough water would complicate a rescue if the balloon had to ditch.
The route will follow the eastward jet stream around the world at speeds that could exceed 200 miles an hour.
The jet stream's path, which meteorologists plot every few hours, changes constantly. But the course is likely to take the balloon over the North Atlantic to the Arctic, then across Russia and Siberia. The jet stream often dips southward, however, and might bring the balloon over the Persian Gulf before resuming its northeasterly course.
Aboard the Earthwinds, besides Newman, will be Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dzhanibekov, a Russian astronaut, and Don Moses, an American builder, mechanic and pilot.
Newman, who was a crew member aboard both the first balloon flight across the Atlantic and the first across the Pacific, is an airline captain on leave from America West Airlines.
The mid-winter season, from December to the end of February, was chosen for the flight because the weather at other times of the year is more dangerous, increasing the chances of encountering turbulence at high altitudes and abrupt shifts in wind, or wind shear.
The Earthwinds, which consists of a helium lift balloon, a pressurized crew capsule and an "anchor balloon" filled with compressed air suspended beneath the capsule, is about 350 feet high.
Robert Rice, chief meteorologist for the project, said that such a high balloon might encounter problems in a wind shear, in which one part of the balloon would be tugged in one direction and the rest in another.
The helium-filled lift balloon is made of thin polyethylene film, similar but somewhat thicker and stronger than the film used to wrap bread. The overall weight of Earthwinds will be about 10 tons.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB