A world famous Russian explorer has outlined his plans to break two hot air balloon world records next year.
Fyodor Konyukhov, 64, will attempt the first of the two world records next month, when he plans to challenge the record for the longest balloon flight.
In a recent interview with TASS, the Russian explained that he intends to set off on his flight from a small town near to Moscow called Rybinsk. He hopes to commence this flight sometime around January 15th. His aim is to break the current record held by Japanese Michio Kanda, whose flight had a total duration of 50 hours and 38 minutes back in 1997 when he took off from Canada and landed in neighbouring USA. To break this record, Konyukhov plans to fly for at least 51 hours.
The second record that will be attempted is that for the highest altitude in a hot air balloon. Konyukhov indicated that he will take up this challenge in the summer of 2017. The current altitude world record is held by Vijaypat Singhania from India, who flew at one of 21km on November 26th, 2005. It is believed that the Russian’s target for this record is to undergo a hot air balloon adventure at an altitude of 25km.
Oskar Konyukhov, the son of Fyodor, explained that his father aims to set this record in either the Krasnoyarsk region or Yakutia.
It comes as no surprise that Konyukhov will be attempting the altitude record, as in October this year, he said that he wanted to work alongside a UK-based balloon manufacturer to build the world’s largest balloon to take him into the stratosphere.
