Report of Demuyter

A victory had become impossible under these conditions. It shows the sportive attitude of Demuyters, that he gives not up the race in the moment, recognizing this, but flies on for 22 1/2 hours, to land near Brideport on the south-coast of England.

But let’s wait a little longer for the results. Still one day before launch it looked like the flight would go east, to Russia. But there the situation was chaotic. After uprisings by workers and seamen in the beginning of the year, now the country is drought ridden and plagued with epidemics. In the west, some people already speak of a quick end of the Soviet government. Nobody wants to have the balloons to fly there. For the first time, a boundary, not allowed to cross, was ordered to the competitors: 25 degrees longitude east, behind this line no results would be taken. So the fixing of competition boundaries for political reasons is not an invention of our time, it had already been there in the old days. This prohibition was not necessary, the wind turned to the east and the balloons launched from 4 p.m. on.

The balloons were driven to the west. From Bruxelles, more north than Paris in 1913, it was much easier to go for England. Nobody landed in front of the water, all crossed it and all managed to do so. The final first begins at the west coast of the British island, when the decision to fly across the Irish Sea or not had to be made. The flight to victory of the Swiss balloon shows some similarities to the flight in 1908, beginning with the fact, that Switzerland participated first in 1908, in 1921 after an eight years break.

I left the report of the co-pilot of the winning Swiss balloon in the style of the old days for good reasons: It shows the former attitude of the people towards topics like “fight”, “victory for your home nation” and the worth of the own life.