|
Don Cameron founder of Cameron Balloons the world's largest hot air balloon manufacturer. Born in 1939, Cameron went to school at Allan Glen's School in Glasgow and then went on to study aeronautical engineering in his home town graduating in 1961. In 1963 he obtained a Masters degree at Cornell, USA. He then joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Cameron developed the first modern hot air balloon entitled Bristol Belle which flew for the first time at Weston on the Green in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom on 9th July 1967. In 1968 Cameron and Leslie Goldsmith founded Omega Balloons which constructed ten balloons, before the company split into Cameron Balloons and Western Balloons in 1970. The base for the new company was 1 Cotham Park, Cotham, Bristol where a total of twenty nine balloons were made in the basement of the property. Cameron Balloons of Bristol, UK was formed by Cameron in 1971 - five years after he constructed his first balloon. 1971 also saw Cameron build Golden Eagle a specific balloon to fly across the Sahara to shoot a film for Jack Le Vien In 1978 his attempt to make the premier Atlantic crossing by balloon ended when bad weather forced his helium-heated balloon down after a 2,000 mile flight from Canada.* Never averse to technical challenges, Cameron went on to write computer programmes to design special shape balloons himself. He has received the gold, silver and bronze medals of the British Royal Aero Club for his ballooning achievements which include being the first man to cross the Sahara and the Alps by hot-air balloon, and in 1990 making the first flight between the UK and what was then the USSR. His dream came true in 1992 when he flew a balloon of his own design from Bangor, Maine, USA to Portugal and took second place in the first ever transatlantic balloon race. * Don Cameron has also been one of the few aeronauts to be awarded the Harmon Trophy. A comprehensive history of Cameron and early balloons
| ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |