Russian hot air balloon pilots, Fedor Konyukhov and Ivan Menyaylo, set a new world record for a hot air balloon flight when they touched down on January 25, 2016, after more than 33 hours in the air.
(Sputnik News) Russian aviation enthusiast Fedor Konyukhov and expert hot air balloon pilot Ivan Menyaylo entered the world record books on Monday when they touched down in the Ivanovo region of central Russia after 33 hours flying in a hot air balloon.
“We needed to stay in the air more than 29 hours, we manage to last 33 hours and 30 minutes,” Konyukhov told RT after making a safe landing in the village of Shestunikha.
As well as being an intrepid explorer, Konyukhov is also an Orthodox priest. He has circumnavigated the globe four times, and crossed the Atlantic 15 times in a sailing boat, and once in a rowing boat.
Konyukhov is so far the only person in the world to have reached five of the extreme poles of the planet: he has traveled to Cape Horn, Mount Everest, the Arctic Ocean pole of inaccessibility, the South Pole and the North Pole, the latter three times.
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