The Aeronauts: Shropshire's modern day balloon man involved in blockbuster film
A new film, charting a record-breaking, aeronautical flight from Wolverhampton to Shropshire was overseen by the county’s modern day, ballooning adventurer.
Per Lindstrand and his company, Lindstrand Technologies, played a major part in The Aeronauts, from designing and creating a replica of the 150-year-old balloon to being the technical advisor during filming.
He says the resulting film, is a wonderful cinematic success that is 100 per cent British.
Lindstrand Technolgies, based in Oswestry, was approached by the production team of The Aeronauts to build the re-production of the James Glaisher's epic balloon flight that took people more than 30,000 feet up into the skies for the first time.
The 1862 flight that landed near Ludlow was undertaken by scientist Glaisher, played by Eddie Redmayne, and balloonist Henry Coxwell.
But in the film Coxwell is replaced by a woman adventurer Amelia Rennes, a fictional character played by Felicity Jones.
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Per was approached by Amazon studios to get involved not only in creating the balloon at his Oswestry factory but providing the technical advice throughout the filming.
He said that the basket was built with the same materials that would have been used then and are still used today.
“We used hemp for the ropes and willow and cane for the basket as they w ould have done,” he said.
However the envelope had to be made to comply with modern safety standards.
“The envelope would have been made from silk and coated in varnish. But those materials were absolute fire hazards. We used fire retardet materials and printed it to look identical to the original.”
In 1862 the balloon was flown by coke gas, used in cooking and heating with Wolverhampton chosen because it had the best coke - make from coal - in the UK.
"For safety, we used helium," Per said.
Test flights were made from Aston Hall near Oswestry, thanks to the Griffiths family, before the balloon left for the filming.
As technical adviser Per was on hand for the balloon scenes and met the stars.
"Felicity was wonderful, a real star," he said.
"There were some scenes were a stunt woman was brought in ans she was absolutely incredible. There was one piece of filming when at 5,000 feet she climbed up onto the top of the envelope. She was a real tough cookie."
He said that the achievement of Glaisher and Coxwell at the time was remarkable.
"To get up to that height without oxygen or protective clothing was virtually impossible. Others died in the attempt."
The Oswestry balloonist is himself not stranger to the world record setting in balloons.
In 1988 he made a successful solo attempt on the world altitude record, beating the old record by 10,000 feet, flying his Stratoquest balloon to 65,000 feet in Laredo, Texas.
"I had an oxygen mask and also a tiny, pressurised cabin," he said.
His Atlantic crossing with Sir Richard Branson in July 1987 increased the distance record from 900 miles to 3,075 miles while In January 1991, Per and Sir Richard set two new world records for distance and duration completing the longest flight in lighter-than-air history by piloting their Pacific Flyer balloon 6,761 miles from Japan to Northern Canada. Then in December 1998, partnered by Sir Richard, Per flew for seven days and covered 20,000 kms in a Rozière balloon from Morocco to Hawaii.
Now Per is hoping to have talks with the Kinoculture cinema in Oswestry to bring the film to the town in which the film balloon was made.
