“Switzerland 1 has started”, it was said on Saturday evening at the airfield in the Polish city of Thorn on the Vistula.
Several manned gas balloons slowly rose into the dark evening sky.
That was the start of the Gordon Bennett Cup: According to the organizers, the 64th race is “the oldest and most respected aviation event” in the world and “the ultimate challenge for pilots”.
Gerhard Gnauck
Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.
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Since 1906, 16 balloons rose in front of 200,000 spectators in the Tuileries in Paris, the competition has always followed the same rules: gas balloons, all filled with the same amount of hydrogen or helium and ballasted with the same number of sandbags, leave one place.
The two-person crew can regulate the ascent and descent themselves by releasing gas or shedding sand.
Only the direction of travel is left to chance - but it also depends on the meteorological knowledge of the participants.
Whoever covers the furthest distance to land has won.
Since a Polish team won in 2018 - it flew 1145 kilometers from Bern in Switzerland to Masuria - Poland was the host this year.
Just not to the east
The press tycoon James Gordon Bennett once launched the competition. In Thorn, the hometown of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, the cup was framed by air shows (very popular in Poland), concerts and a picnic organized in accordance with the Corona rules. The launch of the balloons takes place in several slots over three days. This time the teams come from Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Jacek Bogdański, winner of 2018 and also this time, said before the start that it would probably be possible to travel westwards with the wind at up to 1000 meters altitude, "even as far as Scotland", but to the northeast at greater altitude. Due to the Coriolis force "the direction of the wind changes to the right, the higher the more". The Coriolis force is an inertial forcewhich also contributes to the formation of hurricanes.
The nightmare this time is likely to be to be driven eastwards. "We all remember the tragedy of the 1995 Cup when a balloon was shot down over Belarus," Bogdański told Gazeta Wyborcza. Several balloonists were killed at that time; others were forced to land by Belarusian army helicopters. Belarus and Russia, among others, have refused entry to the Cup. "If the wind drives us to Belarus, we will have to land in time before the border," said Bogdański. The balloonists would also have to coordinate with the airports along their route. The longest drive so far took 92 hours. “But everything comes to an end once, even such a journey doesn't last forever.” The award ceremony is scheduled for Friday or Saturday.