The balloon Gordon Bennett Cup is the world's oldest, and quite likely most prestigious, aviation competition, dating back to 1906. Each year the starting point changes, but the goal remains etched in stone - to fly a gas balloon as far as possible in a straight line from the launch site without stopping.
Three Polish crews are taking part in the 69th edition held in 2026, which kicked off in the early hours of Friday in Gladbeck, Germany. The original starting point was a venue in Munster - but technical difficulties with hydrogen gas supply forced a last-minute change.
During the competition, the teams benefit from the support of modern technologies, the captain of the first Polish team, Przemysław Mościcki, said in an interview with Polish Radio. However, as he pointed out - "there is only so much you can take into the basket of a balloon supposed to outlast the others and fly the furthest".
A ground headquarters for Team Poland has been set up at the War Studies University in Warsaw - an initiative of the institution's students, who volunteered to assist the Polish balloonists competing in this year's Gordon Bennett Cup.
The record time for the winner of the event is held by Germans Wilhelm Eimers and Bernd Landsmann, who remained airborne for over 92 hours in the 1995 race, taking off from Switzerland and landing four days later in Latvia.
Meanwhile, the distance record is held by the Belgian duo of Bob Berben and Benoît Siméons who, in 2005, piloted their balloon 3,400 kilometers from Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, to Squatec, Quebec, Canada.
To date, Poles have won the Gordon Bennett Cup six times.
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Source: PAP, IAR