Breitling Orbiter Capsule
W and J Tod Ltd
Breitling sponsored a series of attempts to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, culminating on 1 March 1999 with the success of Breitling III, which flew round in 19 days 21 hours with Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard on board. The capsule provided their living accommodation and was pressurised to 0.5 barg, and endured temperatures as low as -40C. The sandwich structure utilised carbon Kevlar internal and external skins, either side of a PVC foam core and was manufactured in 2 halves before being bonded and strapped together.
ACL input
Development of the operating Specification
Concept Development
Development of the internal structure
Development of the main pressure vessel including formal analysis
Review of manufacturing process
Completion of all approval testing
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