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Basket from City of St. Louis, Manufactured by Skypower, 1980, registered 'N77NC'

In Context
 This artifact is located in the Why Fly? section.

Related Objects
Click on the photographs to enlarge.

Balloon inflation at Albuquerque Balloon Race, 1982
Balloon inflation at Albuquerque Balloon Race, 1982
Photograph by Vivian Waters
Courtesy of Vivian Waters
#28150

Basket from City of St. Louis

Manufactured by Skypower, 1980, registered 'N77NC'
Gift of Nikki Caplan Endowment Fund
#26589

History
Nikki Caplan and her copilot C. Jane Buckles flew this basket between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Duncombe, Iowa on October 6-8, 1982. They traveled 843.59 miles in the City of St. Louis, a 35,000-cubic-foot balloon. This distance earned Nikki Caplan the women's world distance record for gas balloons in the AA-6 through AA-15 class.

As female aeronauts, Caplan and Buckles had their share of sexist treatment. Caplan attempted to get weather information from a local control tower when the two tried to land in Iowa. The controller could not believe that they were two female aeronauts and gave them trouble. Fortunately for the pair, an American Airlines pilot, who had been listening in, interrupted and gave them the information that they needed.
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