Around the World in 20 Days : The Story of Our History-Making Balloon Flight. This item is unavailable.Around the World in 20 Days : The Story of Our History-Making Balloon Flight

The Story of the First-Ever Round-the-World Balloon Flight As Told by the Pilots "Both of us were being driven on by a colossal charge of hope, which sometimes became so strong that we had to take deep breaths and physically choke it down. The important thing, now, was to concentrate and not make any mistakes." — Brian Jones, March 4, flying over the Sahara Desert "This is exactly my definition of adventure…a point at which you cannot avoid confronting the unknown, so that you have to dig inside yourself to find the courage and resources to deal with what may lie ahead, and to succeed." — Bertrand Piccard, diary entry March 10, heading out over the Pacific

BERTRAND PICCARD (left), 41, is a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. He comes from a family of scientific explorers: His grandfather was the first man to reach the stratosphere in a balloon, while his father dove to the deepest part of the ocean in a bathyscaphe. After he had become a hang-glider champion, he originated the Breitling Orbiter project and was the pilot in command of all three attempts. He lives in Lausanne, Switzerland. BRIAN JONES (right), 52, spent thirteen years with England’s Royal Air Force. He developed a passion for flying balloons in 1986, became an instructor in 1989, and is now the United Kingdom’s chief flying instructor. He worked on the Breitling Orbiter 2 attempt and was the project manager for Breitling Orbiter 3. Originally the backup pilot, he was instated as pilot just weeks before launch. He lives in Wiltshire, England.