September 20, 1970  saw a colorful, seven story tall balloon about to embark on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean.  If it succeeded it would be the first such attempt to do so.  In the near anachronistic world of derring-do here was an adventure attempting the seemingly impossible. 

 

​For English pilot Malcolm Brighton, this would be his 100th assent.  He was an experienced balloonist, a builder of lighter-than-air crafts and somewhat of a daredevil.  Americans and sponsors, Rod Anderson was the navigator, his wife, Pamela Brown the chronicler and on board photographer.  

 

Four years in the planning and thirty hours in the air, the balloon and its crew were brought down by a storm in the North Atlantic some 500 miles from land and disappeared without a trace.

 

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