France’s hot air balloon festival brightens up the sky
Hot-air balloons fly over Chambley-Bussieres, eastern France, to try to set a world record with 408 balloons in the sky, on July 31, 2013, as part of the yearly event ‘Lorraine Mondial Air Balloons,’ an international air-balloon meeting.
France held a record-breaking hot air balloon festival earlier this week, with more than 400 of the piloted balloons brightening up the sunny sky over a former NATO airfield.
The annual Lorraine Mondial Air Balloons festival, organized by a descendent of 18th century aeronautics pioneer Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier, broke two records this year.
The first was shattered when 408 piloted balloons were sent up in an hour, and the second was broken when 391 balloons were lined up on runways and sent up into the air together.