What a gas! 66th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett to launch out of ABQ

While the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is usually most associated with balloons of the hot air variety, there are some special balloons waiting their chance to go the distance this fiesta.

For the first time since 2008, Balloon Fiesta will be the starting line for the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world long distance gas balloon championship.

This is the fifth time Balloon Fiesta has hosted the event, with races also taking place from Albuquerque in 2005, 1999 and 1993.

The Gordon Bennett is the world’s oldest aviation event, and competitors take to the sky in gas-filled balloons with the goal of traveling the furthest without landing.

With the Gordon Bennett taking place this year, the America’s Challenge gas balloon race is hitting pause.

“Since we’re hosting (17 teams) from around the world, we can’t hold both an America’s Challenge and Gordon Bennett at the same time,” says Sam Parks, Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta executive director.

This year’s Gordon Bennett will contain teams from Austria, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. Each country is allotted a maximum of three teams.

Defending Gordon Bennett champions, father and son duo Wilhelm Eimers and Benjamin Eimers, will be representing Germany in the balloon Leonid.

Taking flight for the United States are Noah Forden and Brenda Cowlishaw flying Intrepid, Barbara Fricke and Peter Cuneo in Foxtrot Charlie, and Mark Sullivan and Cheri White in Snowbird. Forden won the 2021 America’s Challenge with Bert Padelt as his co-pilot.

The race is scheduled to launch at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, weather permitting. According to Parks, they will have until midnight on Oct. 11 to launch the race before the window closes.

“Hopefully with good weather we’ll get them out on Saturday, Oct. 7,” he says.

Originally this year’s race was slated to launch from Switzerland, but the venue was changed to Balloon Fiesta in order to give the teams a larger airspace to fly.

“It’s the most prestigious aviation race, not just ballooning ...,” says Parks. “In Europe, there are countries where they cannot overfly. It gives them a great distance to fly.”

The Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum will be home to the tracking headquarters.

“We will have a command center first floor of the Balloon Museum,” says Parks.

There will also be a Gordon Bennett TV production center and live updates. Balloonists will make videos while aloft, and a live map will track each balloon as it makes its way across the country and possibly into Canada.

The longest distance traversed in a single Gordon Bennett was in 2005 out of Albuquerque. Belgium pilots Bob Berben and Benoît Siméons flew a distance of 2,112.9 miles, breaking the previous record set in 1912 of 1,361 miles.

However, the furthest a gas balloon has raced out of Albuquerque was during the 2017 America’s Challenge, where the Swiss team of Nicolas Tièche and Laurent Sciboz flew 2,275.87 miles.

Parks says in honor of the 66th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett there will be a special poster for the race, along with pins and merchandise.