Hot air balloon to make flight across Taiwan Straits next year

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-25 11:46

BEIJING -- Aeronauts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan will fly a hot air balloon across the Taiwan Strait for the first time next year, a mainland expert said here on Tuesday.

"The flight is expected to take place next July or August, depending on weather conditions," Du Jin'en, secretary-general of the Aero Sports Federation of eastern China's Fujian Province, told Xinhua.

Du said aeronauts from the mainland and Taiwan had been discussing the flight since 1999 but couldn't make actual plans until this year.

"Warming cross-Strait relations make the flight possible," he said.

Cross-Strait relations have started to relax since Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou took office on May 20. The two sides resumed talks that had been suspended for nearly 10 years. In their recent round of talks in Taipei, the two sides agreed on direct shipping and air transport services.

Du said the balloon is expected to ascend from a site between Yunlin and Taoyun in western Taiwan and land between Chongwu and Fuqing in central Fujian on the mainland.

The flight is likely to take three to four hours if wind conditions are perfect and six to seven hours if they are not.

Two aeronauts, one each from the mainland and Taiwan, will pilot the balloon. There might be another passenger, Du said, without elaborating.

Du said the idea for the flight was initiated by the Taipei Hot Air Balloon Association. "Organizations of the two sides have set up a working team to prepare for the flight and now we've started applications for approval from relevant authorities," Du said.

The aeronaut said the Strait has never been crossed before by a hot air balloon with a human pilot. "To fly over the Strait, which separates the mainland and Taiwan, has significant meaning," Du said.

The Taiwan Strait is a 180-km-wide passage between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Its narrowest part is 135 km wide. Most of the Strait is less than 100 m deep.