The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-08-02
THREE LOCAL men
MADE BALLOON
ASCENSION
W. H. Nichols, Fred Lafranchise
and E. Palmer Boughton
FLIGHT FRO M NORTH ADKINS
Balloon Massachusetts Carrying Five
Passengers Made Successful As
cent Saturday Afternoon

Perfect weather conditions and the
prettiest getaway ever seen at Aero
Park characterized the ascension from
North Adams Saturday afternoon OF
the big balloon Massachusetts,. piioted
by William Van Sleet of Pittsfie.d.
with W H Nichols, e. Palmer Bouzh-
ton and Fred Lafranchise OF this town
and H. b. Stone, hardware salesman
OF Springfield whose home is in Shelf
held, Mass, as passengers. The start
was made at 1920. After they were
in the air for about one hour and 30
minutes they made a landing in two
divisions about mile and a half from
Monroe Bridge, Mass, in the town of
Readsboro. Mr.. Lafranchise desired To
make record as being the first to
land and by doing so gave the other
members of the party an additional
sail for tneir money which was not a
part of the program.
When the ascent was made a slight
breeze was blowing from the north
west which at the start drifted the
balloon slightly to the southeast tow
ard Hoosac Tunnel. For over a half
hour they lowered within sight of the
tunnel city, the current of air being so
slight that the movement of the bal
loon was scarcely preceptible from
the ground
After being in the air for some time
they began to drift slowly northward.
Van Sleet hoped that If the current
held out they would be able to make
Wilmington. In this, however, they
were disappointed as the breeze soon
lulled and but little progress was
made in any direction for some time.
Soon the party struck cold cur
rent of air. The gas contracted and
the balloon made quick drop of sew
eral hundred feet. Bags of ballast
were thrown out with no apparent eff
feet for what seemed long time to
the amateurs who did not exactly en-
joy this part of the trip. An idea OF
how fast the balloon was travelling to-
wards the earth may be mad from the
fact that it passed in the air some OF
the ballast which was released from
the basket. After reaching a warmer
strata of air the speed gradually
slackened until the balloon again be-
came almost stationary.
The greatest height attained in this
part of the fight was variously estim-
ated from 1000 to 10000 feet. The al
titude varied from time to time and oc-
casionally they came within speaking
distance of the ground.
1t was then decided to choose suit
able place for landing and after much
the anchor was let
down in an opening among the noun
tains near the state line. The balloon
gradually sank and apparently a
graceful landing was to take place,
Pilot Van Sleet instructed his passens
gers to climb up in the rigging just
above the basket so that when the
basket struck the ground they would
not get badly shaken up. When they
reached the ground, the balloon sway
ed Just as it struck Lafranchisew
who thought it was time to release his
grip on the ropes and fearing the big
gas bag was going TO collapse on top
of him, let go and striking in a clump
of swamp grass ran to one side.
The balloon with its pilot and re-
naming three passengers shot up In
the air at high rate of speed when
relieved of some of its burden. The
dope holding the anchor became unat-
tached and thus the big gas bag was
CONTINUED on last page)