Fly around the world with Bailey Balloons and Yuup


By Yuup

Last updated on Thursday 21 March 2024


We’re excited to share that we’ve teamed up with Bristol’s Bailey Balloons to offer an experience of a lifetime! Two lucky Bristol residents will be able to join the Bailey Balloons team to circumnavigate the world from Bristol, in The Yuup Flyer.

The Yuup Flyer team will be attempting something the Breitling Orbiter 3 successfully achieved in 1999. That balloon was built in Bristol by Cameron Balloons and the we hope to build on this Bristol ballooning history, when Jo Bailey and the selected Bristol crew members become the first Bristolians to complete the around the world challenge.

"The plan is to travel some 40,000 kilometres in a non-stop, non-fuelled flight. We expect to reach altitudes of more than 10,000 metres and speeds of over 120 knots."
Jo Bailey from Bailey Balloons

Chief pilot will be Jo Bailey, MD and co-founder of Bailey Balloons. Jo, a highly experienced balloonist having flown in different countries around the world including Bulgaria, Poland, Qatar, Switzerland, France, and Italy, admits this challenge will be on a whole new level.

“This is a project I’ve always wanted to do and when Dominic suggested a collaboration with Yuup it felt the time was right, but we’re not underestimating the size of the challenge. The plan is to travel some 40,000 kilometres in a non-stop, non-fuelled flight. We expect to reach altitudes of more than 10,000 metres and speeds of over 120 knots. All being well we’ll complete a circumnavigation of the globe in about 2-weeks.”

Jo is no stranger to ballooning adventures – husband Clive has been the logistics and flight director for David Hempleman-Adams’s many record-breaking balloon flights including a flight to the North Pole in 2000.

Bailey Balloons
"It really is a once in a lifetime experience.”

Yuup will be the main sponsor for this adventure - since our launch in September last year we’ve shared many amazing Bristol experiences and this will be the most challenging yet! Our co-founder and CEO, Dominic Mills 

“I’m super excited that Yuup is collaborating with Jo and her team on this incredible adventure. Bristol is famous for ballooning and it seems a fitting way to promote the creativity, technological capabilities and spirit of adventure of our great city. I’m especially pleased we will be able to give two members of the public who are residents of Bristol the opportunity to join Jo as crew. It really is a once in a lifetime experience.”

Due to unprecedented interest from people applying to go on this once in a lifetime trip around the world, we're currently not taking more applications.

However, if you'd like to drift over Bristol, fly over Bath, or float over Somerset you can book a private ballooning experience with Bailey Balloons on Yuup.  


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