SECOND EDITION OF THE ECO-RACE

A sostenible hot air balloon competition

The past 9th of February it took place the second edition of the Balloon Concept Challenge Eco-Race. This competition consists in flying with a hot air balloon the maximum distance with the less energy consumption as possible. Only the ECO hot air balloons can participate. These balloons are designed with specific characteristics that allow them to reduce the energy consumption during the flight.

The competition takes into account the consumption, the distance, the insulation rate and the lifting force. The rate of all this computing items took to the podium the team of Pierrick Duvoisin and Jacob Besnard, in second position the local team of Josep Maria Lladó and Neus Lladó, and in third place Lea Zeberli and Pep Jusà.

The competition took place with extreme conditions, as the cold was the main protagonist. Also, the wind was stronger than expected and reduced the duration of the flights. In the last edition, the flight lasted 15 hours. In this edition the longest flight lasted only 7 hours.

10 hot air balloons with pilots from all the world took off at 3am in Toulouse, France. They flew for 200km and landed in Tarragona and central Catalonia. The flight required strategy to reduce consumption and to fly as maximum hours as possible.

This year the consumption has been reduced drastically, as the winner consumed an average of 14KG/H and last year the consumption average rate was of 25’4KG/H.We will have to wait to see what happens in next edition on the Balloon Concept Challenge Eco-Race.