Vijaypat Singhania sets balloon flight world record

Despite initial hiccups, the world record attempt for balloon flight ends successfully.

27 Nov, 2005, MUMBAI; Business tycoon Vijaypat Singhania set a new world record by flying a hot air balloon to a height of 69,000 feet on Saturday.

The flamboyant 67-year-old chairman of the Raymond Group lifted off from Mumbai at 6.45 am in a pressurised cabin attached to a balloon, which had the height of a 22-storey building.

He crossed the world record at 8.52 am, media reports said.

Singhania flew in a 1.6 million cubic feet capacity balloon named Envelope, built in UK.

In 1994, Singhania had won the aviation sports gold medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) for a 24-day world air race covering 34,000 km in 1994.

Officials of FAI were present during the mission on Saturday. The FAI has recognized the new record set by Singhania.

Singhania had in 1998 set a solo record, flying a micro-light plane from United Kingdom to India in just 22 days.

Singhania broke, who had named his Saturday’s mission Mission Impossible 70k, broke the record of 64,997 feet held by Per Lindstrand, who achieved the feat in Texas in 1988. At least 17 persons have made attempted to break Lindstrand’s record.

Singhania became the Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond in January 1980. In July 1999, he became the Executive Chairman of the Company. On Sept 6, 2000, he became the Chairman-Emeritus of the firm.