ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT A HALF-HOUR

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 13, 1993                   TAG: 9301130227
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RENO, NEV.                                LENGTH: Short
ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT A HALF-HOUR
A troubled effort to launch the first non-stop around-the-world balloon flight lumbered off the ground Tuesday, but the craft brushed a mountain and crashed in a remote valley minutes later. The three crew members weren't injured, but the project was scrapped until fall.
"It really started right after takeoff," pilot and project leader Larry Newman said at a news conference. "Its performance was sluggish. It was not climbing as scheduled. I am baffled . . . ."
Earthwinds Hilton, a unique hourglass-shaped craft, was launched from the Reno Stead Airport at midmorning and drifted northwest.
It went down 30 minutes later just inside California in a snow-clogged valley between two mountain ranges.
The balloon came down in rugged terrain, accessible only by helicopter or snow cat because of heavy snow over the past several weeks.
It was the latest setback in the star-crossed bid for the record books, delayed for nearly a year by weather and other problems.
Problems with inflating the craft's two balloons delayed the planned pre-dawn launch for several hours Tuesday.
Earthwinds consists of a top balloon filled with helium, a football-shaped crew capsule hanging beneath it, and an air-filled anchor balloon suspended beneath that. The combined height is 370 feet, more than the distance from goal post to goal post on a football field.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB