Double Eagle V was the first balloon to make a successful crossing of the Pacific Ocean. It launched from Nagashima, Japan on November 10, 1981, and landed in Mendocino National Forest in California 84 hours and 31 minutes later, travelling a record 5768miles.[1] The four-man crew consisted of Albuquerque balloonists Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Ron Clark, and thrill-seeking restaurateur Rocky Aoki, who helped fund the flight. The helium-filled Double Eagle V spent four days crossing the Pacific before the balloon, weighed down by ice and buffeted by a storm, crash-landed in northern California, ending the nearly 6,000-mile flight. No one was hurt. [2]
Abruzzo and Newman had previously been two of the pilots of Double Eagle II, which in 1978 became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic.
Double Eagle V failed to attract the same degree of media attention as the earlier flight, in part because it was overshadowed by the concurrent Space Shuttle mission STS-2.[3]
In January 2015, the crew of the Two Eagles Balloon completed a flight across the Pacific Ocean. On July 15, 2015, it was verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as having broken the distance record of the Double Eagle II.[4] [5]