If you're embarking around the world in a hot-air balloon, don't forget the GS4200-USB!

Pressure transmitters are used in a myriad of applications across countless industries. They can be used in conjunction with other devices to measure depth, altitude, water flow, and even pressure loss in order to prevent leaks in a system.

We have seen many weird and wonderful applications at ESI over the years, and recently the GS4200-USB was used in the verification and production testing of the fuel cylinders for Fedor Konyukhov’s around-the-world balloon flight taking 11 days and 5 hours to fly around the world, covering a distance of 32996 km. Wow! 

Fedor Konyukhov, is a Russian adventurer, but also an ordained Eastern Orthodox priest, a writer, a widely renowned artist of over 3,000 paintings, and one of the greatest living adventurers today. He has seen the top of all Seven Summits (the highest points on each of the seven continents), the North and South Poles, and the Pole of Inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean. He has sailed around the world four times, always around the fearsome Cape Horn. And over 160 days, he crossed the Pacific Ocean, unsupported and unassisted, in a rowboat.

Fedor’s lastest hot air balloon voyage began at sunrise on Tuesday 12th July 2016, launching at 7.33 am near Perth, Australia crossing the meridian of his take-off on Saturday 23rd July at 05.05 UTC, beating the record set by Steve Fossett in 2002. Flying a Cameron Balloon, and sponsored by MORTON Russia, he succeeded in flying around-the-world, breaking the previous solo world record for the shortest time flown around-the-world. In the history of aviation, only three balloons, have ever completed this round-the-world flight successfully, and ALL have been built by Cameron Balloons, Bristol, UK.

Cameron Balloons is a company which was established in 1971 in Bristol, England by Scottish aeronautical engineer Donald Cameron, who designed and flew Western Europe’s first modern hot air balloon in 1967 with a group of friends at the Bristol Gliding Club. It is famous for its special shapes, the first being Robertson’s Golly, constructed in 1975. Over the years they have created balloons designed to look like Darth Vader, Thomas the Tank engine, a Harley Davidson, a Sphinx, a bust of Beethoven and the FA Cup for clients.

Cameron Balloons use the GS4200-USB in the fuel cylinder pressure test rig. The stainless steel propane cylinders are each tested to 30Bar as part of the production process, and occasionally burst tests to 90 Bar are performed as quality checks.  We’re really proud to have had a small part in making sure Fedors balloon was performing perfectly!

Read all about the record breaking voyage here;
http://www.cameronballoons.co.uk/news/new-round-the-world-adventure