Special to The Star-Herald
PRESQUE ISLE – It rose into the dusky sky silently from a Presque Isle hayfield and into the history books. It was Aug. 11, 1978, 30 years ago when the Double Eagle II, a silver and black, 11-story tall, helium filled balloon lifted off at 8:43 p.m. with pilots Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, all of Albuquerque, N.M., on board.
The 137 hours and six minute flight took the three across the North Atlantic, over Ireland and into a barley field in France, about 60 miles northwest of Paris. This first successful Trans-Atlantic balloon flight earned each man a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in June 1979.
The three returned to Presque Isle Oct. 27, 1978 and were met at the airport by the Maine Army National Color Guard, City Manager Dana Connors and Presque Isle Chamber of Commerce Executive Secretary Aubrey Briggs. Also on hand were Roger and Rachel Coquerel, of Misery, France, the couple who owned the field where the balloon touched down, and Merle and Alice Sprague from whose field the balloon had lifted off from at Spragueville. Wives Pat Abruzzo and Patti Anderson accompanied their husbands.
At a huge reception in the packed Presque Isle High School gym, senior high school class president Mylan Cohen presented each of the balloonists with a large, glass terrarium made from the soil taken from the balloon-launching site. Anderson told how on the fourth night of their flight, he cooked six Maine potatoes from one of the two bags they had been given for their trip. He said it was the best meal he had ever had. “We had french fries a la Presque Isle,” he said. Abruzzo explained that in choosing Presque Isle as their liftoff point, “We made the very best decision because we made a lot of friends, and more important than the history books, we brought a great deal of pride to our country and joy to the people of the United States and across the world. We didn’t make history, we were only a part of it.”
Presque Isle was chosen because it was the shortest Atlantic route to Europe and was far from congested metropolitan airplane traffic.
Anderson returned again to Presque Isle Aug. 11, 1981 for the dedication of the Double Eagle II monument at the launch site sponsored by the Spragueville Extension. Students of the Maine Migrant Summer Youth Employment Program at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute created a sheet metal replica of the balloon for the park. The extension group had given an invitation to Abruzzo and Newman, but both responded with wires that they would be unable to attend. President Ronald Reagan and Gov. Joseph E. Brennan also were invited for the ceremonies, but were not able to attend. Gov. Brennan did visit the site at another time.
Anderson died in a balloon crash in Bavaria, West Germany in June of 1983. Newman and Abruzzo made a successful balloon flight across the Pacific in 1981 from Japan to California in Double Eagle V, making Newman the only man alive that had ever crossed both oceans in a helium balloon. Abruzzo died in a plane crash at Albuquerque, N.M. in 1985.
Back 30 years ago, I had left full-time news work to operate my own photography studio and Polar Star Associates, a creative services group which published brochures, booklets, created films and the quarterly magazine, “The Mainstreeter.” I was a stringer for United Press International so I was interested in what the balloonists were up to. In checking, I learned they had loaded the gondola and the balloon on a large, flat bed trailer and transported everything to the Merle Sprague farm in Spragueville.
A lot of people were on hand in the field including the pilots’ three wives, Sandy Newman, Pat Abruzzo and Patti Anderson, and an ABC Sports television crew had mounted a camera on the edge of the gondola in order to photograph activity in the craft during the flight. Newman attached his hang glider under the gondola with plans to fly to the ground when France was reached. His plans were scrapped later when the crew ditched the glider as ballast when they needed the extra lift.
The decision was made to fill the envelope and to fly as soon as the winds were right. I had a problem. I was at the history-making scene with no camera. My secretary/assistant, Kathy Crosby, dashed back to the studio and brought back an armful of cameras. In the meantime, Gene Willman, the UPI chief photographer, was flying over the site ready for liftoff photos. He made good aerial coverage of the ground activities until it got dark and he was forced to land.
Thousands of spectators filled nearby fields and lined all roads for miles. It was estimated by police that between 8,000 and 9,000 people were on hand as the huge helium-bearing tanker filled the balloon envelope. The balloon was silver with a black cone shaped base. I suppose it could resemble a large ice cream cone. The silver top would reflect the sunlight and limit the expansion of helium during the day and the black cone would absorb heat in the early morning and late afternoon. The gondola was of a double catamaran design so that it would float more easily in case the three had to ditch in the Atlantic Ocean. It was 15 feet long, seven feet wide and four-and-a-half feet tall. The red and yellow vehicle was christened “The Spirit of Albuquerque.” Not very large for three guys to live in for several days. And, yes, they had a potty on board.
The balloon was designed and built by Ed Yost of South Dakota, who himself had broken seven world records when he flew solo across the Atlantic in 1976. He was forced to ditch 700 miles from Europe. Yost was on hand at Spragueville supervising the launch.
As the balloon filled, toasts were made with the three pilots by passing a bottle of champagne around and someone carried a sign that read, “We Love You.” Then they lifted off. The balloon rose and then dipped toward trees when Newman’s hang glider hit a power line.
Anderson and Abruzzo went to sleep almost immediately. Newman said later, “It was really eerie to be floating along as though in a soundproof room. The sounds were amplified like the rain, a waterfall, and vehicles on the road.” The Aurora Borealis was intense that first night along with a meteor shower.
Meanwhile, back in Maine, we of the press really had to go to work. We rushed to my studio and developed film, printed what we hoped would be our best shots, and transmitted them over my telephone line to UPI in New York. From there, they went to news outlets in different parts of the world. Other photographers and reporters, some from France, called in their stories or just laid around on the studio floor. The next day, my color photos were sent to one of my agencies who handled worldwide sales and one shot made the cover of Time magazine.
Photo courtesy of Voscar
THE DOUBLE EAGLE II, a silver and black, 11-story tall, helium filled balloon that launched from a hayfield on the Spragueville Road in Presque Isle Aug. 11, 1978, was the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight. It took pilots Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman 137 hours and six minutes to travel from the Star City to Misery, France.
Photo courtesy of Voscar
THE DOUBLE EAGLE II pilots returned to Presque Isle Oct. 27, 1978 where they were met at the airport by the Maine Army National Color Guard. During the day they went to Bonanza’s where a Double Eagle II room was dedicated. Pictured outside the restaurant are, from left: Lori Irving, 1978 Maine Potato Queen; Larry Newman, pilot; Roger Coquerel of Misery, France, whose barley field about 60 miles northwest of Paris the Double Eagle II landed in; Patti Anderson, Maxie’s wife; Maxie Anderson, pilot; Pat Abruzzo, Ben’s wife; Ben Abruzzo, pilot; an unidentified man, and Merle and Alice Sprague, who owned the Presque Isle hayfield on the Spragueville Road where the Double Eagle II was launched.
