QinetiQ 1 Press Release

Airborne Engineering Ltd are the main contractor for electronics systems on the QinetiQ 1 Balloon project. QinetiQ 1 is an attempt to break the altitude record for manned helium balloons, last set in 1963. QinetiQ 1 will be flown by two pilots, Andy Elson and Colin Prescot, to an altitude of 132,000 ft (25 miles up). The flight will take around 8 hours to complete.

Airborne Engineering Ltd has been involved in the project from the early stages of the balloon's design, providing engineering consultancy services. Additionally, we have designed and custom-manufactured a wide range of equipment to meet the particularly challenging requirements of the flight. Equipment on board QinetiQ has to operate under a wide pressure and temperature range. The pilots have a very restricted range of movement in their space suits leading to some interesting ergonomic challenges for control of the balloon's systems.

Systems provided by Airborne Engineering Ltd include the following:

  • an environmentally-hardened intercom system to interface the pilot's Zvesda space suits with the balloon's radio systems
  • a downlink carrying 2 simultaneous channels of live video, selected from 8 on board video cameras under control of the pilots
  • a secure radio communication system to allow the pilots to talk to the ground crew aboard the launch vessel (RV Triton)
  • a telemetry system to provide the ground crew with safety-critical information about the balloon's systems in real time
  • on board recording of video and telemetry for post-flight analysis
  • a power distribution system to supply all the on board equipment and provide fault protection
  • a "standard" avionics fit of air band radios and transponders to allow the pilots to safely coordinate with air traffic control services
  • ground support equipment including power distribution, receivers, cabling and computer infrastructure for Flight Ops aboard RV Triton

For more information on QinetiQ 1, please vist the project's web site, http://www.qinetiq1.com

Stop Press

The QinetiQ 1 launch was made from RV Triton early in the morning on the 3rd of September 2003 off the west coast of Cornwall. Sadly, the record attempt had to be aborted when a tear occurred in the 43 million cubic foot balloon's fragile envelope material as it was being inflated with helium. Airborne Engineering Ltd wishes the QinetiQ 1 team every success with their next launch attempt.