1947-

English Balloonist

Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard (1958- ) became the first men to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon when they completed their around-the-world flight in the Breitling Orbiter 3 on March 21, 1999. The two had set out from the Swiss Alps 20 days before, and except for perils over the Pacific Ocean, their flight had gone amazingly well.

Jones was born on March 27, 1947, in Bristol, England. He learned to fly at the age of 16, and served 13 years in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He first became involved in ballooning in 1986, when he was 39 years old, and soon acquired a commercial ballooning license. By 1989, he had been licensed as an instructor, and was later certified as an examiner for balloon flight licenses by the British Civil Aviation Authority.

His experience as a ballooning enthusiast put him into the same circles as Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist who came...