Albuquerque balloonist helps crew record-breaking Atlantic crossing
Peter Cuneo helped guide a hydrogen balloon 2,852 nautical miles from Maine to Luxembourg, linking Albuquerque’s ballooning expertise to a historic Atlantic crossing.
An Albuquerque balloonist helped push a hydrogen-filled balloon across the Atlantic, covering 2,852 nautical miles from Presque Isle, Maine, to Luxembourg in 70 hours and 11 minutes. The flight, which launched June 4 and landed June 7, was described as the first successful transatlantic crossing by an open-basket hydrogen gas balloon.
The local connection runs through Peter Cuneo, a retired engineer and champion balloonist who lives in Albuquerque and has spent much of his career supporting innovative balloon technology. A City of Albuquerque Balloon Museum Foundation post on June 3 said Cuneo, a board member with the foundation, was actively traveling with the Atlantic Explorer team as the balloon crossed the ocean. That tie matters in Bernalillo County, where ballooning is not just spectacle at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta but also a field shaped by technical skill, weather judgment and long experience.
Cuneo joined Bert Padelt and Alicia Hempleman-Adams on the Atlantic Explorer mission, a flight that drew attention because of both its distance and its unusual design. The crew used hydrogen as the lifting gas, and early reporting said the flight was still under official review by the International Aeronautical Association, also known as FAI. Even before final confirmation, the mission was being treated as a likely milestone in gas-balloon aviation, one that pushed well beyond the more familiar image of hot-air balloons rising over the Rio Grande Valley.
The flight also fits into a longer history that Albuquerque ballooning fans know well. FAI records show that Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman completed the Double Eagle II Atlantic crossing in 1978, flying from Presque Isle to Miserey, France in 137 hours, 5 minutes and 50 seconds over 5,001.22 kilometers. FAI also says Joseph Kittinger made the first solo Atlantic crossing by balloon in 1984, flying from Caribou, Maine, to Italy in 107 hours. Against that backdrop, the Atlantic Explorer mission stood out not only as a new attempt at an ocean crossing, but as proof that Albuquerque’s ballooning community still supplies expertise to the most demanding flights in the world.
Coverage around the mission said the team had spent years, and in one account four years, preparing for the attempt. It also noted that several Atlantic Explorer members have Albuquerque ties and connections to Balloon Fiesta culture, reinforcing how deeply Bernalillo County remains woven into the global ballooning network.
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