Per Lindstrand

Richard Branson and Swedish aeronaut Per Lindstrand, aboard the Virgin Atlantic Flyer, made the first transatlantic flight in a hot-air balloon. And in 1991, aboard the Otsuka Flyer, they made the first transpacific flight in a hot-air balloon. In 1984 American aviator Joseph W. Kittinger, aboard the helium-filled Rosie O’Grady’s…

…ballooning he and Swedish aeronaut Per Lindstrand became in 1987 the first team to cross the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon and in 1991 the first to cross the Pacific Ocean. Branson was also a member of teams that made three failed attempts in the late 1990s at round-the-world balloon…