Balloonist Julian Nott began preparation for the dangerous flight before dawn. Hot air from a hardwood fire filled the strange bag. Then the lines were cut. "We went up at 18 feet a second," recalls Jim Woodman who flew with Nott. Neither man wore a parachute. "We reached 380 feet and drifted for a good minute and a half."
 |
 |
Below them, stretching across miles of the bleak Nazca plain in Peru, was a network of giant patterns and figures, one of the great puzzles of Inca civilization. At ground level the artwork cannot be seen. Woodman hoped to show ancient balloonists could have inspired artists from above and approached world leading balloonist Julian Nott to fly him. "The designs are visible only from the air," Woodman says, "because it was intended that way, and indicated flight of some kind." Woodman and his friends (including Michael DeBakey, son of the famed heart surgeon) decided to test the theory. The 12-story balloon cost $12,000. It was made of cotton, as close as possible to the weave and weight of textiles found in 2,000 year old Nazca graves. The reed gondola was constructed by the same craftsman who build Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki. It was named Condor because the bird is often depicted in Nazca designs. Nott and Woodman are both so tall (6'1") they had to straddle the gondola. At maximum altitude Nott says, "We dropped to 200 feet and threw out ballast." He added the brief, rudimentary flight was more emotional for him than setting the world altitude record for hot-air balloons.
The flight lasted only five and a half minutes and cost $22,000. Woodman is writing a book about it. The ex-Marine father of five once wrote travel articles for Playboy. Nott, an Oxford graduate, runs his own aeronautical engineering firm and was awarded the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal for this altitude record. The day after their historic mission, Woodman was a happy man. "We demonstrated that with native materials and the power of fire, man can fly. We wanted to preserve Nazca, and today it is protected. And besides, it was a hell of an adventure."
Woodman and Nott moments after landing, with their reed gondola still intact.
JANE RIEKER
Photos: Larry Dale Gordon
