Word: gondola
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...same as Phileas Fogg's, the means even less down to earth. In a gossamer-thin (.004 in.) polyurethane balloon rigged with a 14-ft. by 10-ft. unpressurized gondola, famed Aeronaut Maxie Anderson, 46, set out from Luxor, Egypt, last week, along with fellow Businessman and Adventurer Don Ida, 47. Their plan: to travel eastward around the world-south of Iran and the U.S.S.R. (hostile airspace), south of the Himalayas (deadly to balloons), over the Pacific and North America to an eastern Mediterranean landing spot-in less than ten days. To complete the high-speed journey, the eleven...
Despite such bad domestic news, Carter could take considerable satisfaction from his new-found unity with the other summit participants on political, economic and energy issues. Said Japanese Foreign Minister Saburo Okita: "Our seven nations are seven passengers in the same gondola." More prosaically, a top Carter aide summed up: "Nobody is trying to claim we got everything we wanted. But in the realm of the possible, things worked out pretty damn well...
...another major record last week: the first balloon crossing of North America. Their craft was the Kitty Hawk, a 75-ft. teardrop of fragile polyethylene filled with 200,000 cu. ft. of helium. Dangling from the balloon was an 11-ft. by 5-ft. red, white and blue gondola. It carried the Andersons and 5,000 lbs. of ballast and supplies, including ten radios, a folding cot, a backgammon board and a week's worth of fried chicken, peanut butter and chocolate-chip cookies...
...Lawrence River, the Kitty Hawk was pushed by strong gusts toward high-power lines. The Royal Canadian Mounties, aboard a helicopter, came to the rescue. Using the backwash from the rotors, the chopper pilot pushed the balloon toward a clearing in Ste. Félicité, Quebec, where the gondola finally dropped to the ground, 99 hrs. and 54 min. after leaving San Francisco Bay. For once Maxie's mind was not on the next challenge, which he had previously suggested might be a balloon flight around the world. Said he: "I'll leave that for another...