Word: crafted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...pioneering craft go, the Breitling Orbiter 3 outclasses the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria--and the Spirit of St. Louis, for that matter. It is a high-tech combination of hot air and gas, equipped not only with simple necessities like a bunk, toilet and desks but also with a fax machine and satellite telephones. The journey began on March 1, Piccard's birthday, in the snowcapped mountains of Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland. Piccard and Jones cruised toward Italy at an altitude of 21,000 ft., crossed over the Mediterranean at night and enjoyed a meal...
Piccard and Jones had better luck with China. On March 10 the Beijing government allowed the Swiss-licensed Breitling access to its skies, so long as the craft stayed south of the 26th parallel. Nevertheless, morale on the Orbiter 3 started to flag soon after, as Piccard and Jones flew over the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Progress toward Hawaii was slow, and they lost contact with mission control for four days. "I realized that the worst desert wasn't made of sand but of water," Piccard said when communications were re-established. Then the balloon popped...
...most innovative and influential designers, Rutan has built a pressurized gondola for a round-the-world balloon attempt, a rigid winglike sail for an America's Cup winner, GM's Ultralight show car and the X-38 NASA crew-return vehicle. He is now testing his most exotic craft yet, the asymmetrical twin-engined Boomerang, designed to prevent instability should one engine fail. And he has set his sights on the $10 million X-PRIZE for the first private spaceship to carry three passengers to sub-orbital altitude, land safely and return to space twice within two weeks...
Wiley Middleton is exactly the sort of fellow whom small towns love to welcome home. A 45-year-old graphics designer who honed his craft in bigger cities, Middleton moved back to his native Leadville, Colo., 18 months ago, eager to trade urban pressures for the serenity of this historic mining town of 3,421. But Leadville's telephone system is quaint too, and won't let his computer modem send the digital images that are his livelihood. This regularly forces Middleton to drive two hours to Denver to deliver electronic designs for brochures and ads. "I can't compete...
...actor still possesses the self-effacement that comes with having once supported his craft by driving delivery trucks for Gimme Seltzer. "You go into these TV things always worrying about the kind of egos you're going to encounter," says Sopranos co-star Edie Falco, "but he just doesn't have one." 8mm director Joel Schumacher was equally impressed by the actor's lack of pretension and gift for capturing a character's telling moment or gesture. He recalls how Gandolfini, who plays a pornographer in the film, persuaded him to have a diary hidden in a toilet tank instead...