For World Penguin day, we are honoring a one of a kind penguin... the Soaring Penguin! 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It is the Soaring Penguin Hot Air Balloon! The Soaring Penguin Hot Air Balloon is a one-of-a-kind Byrd Center innovation created to simplify ice core transport from the summits of tropical ice caps. Missions like this require an aircraft to be lightweight, packable, reach altitudes greater than 30,000 ft, and store up to eight ice cores. The idea sat on Byrd’s shelves until Michael Bronstein, a local businessman and Byrd enthusiast, offered half of the funds to make this idea a reality, while the remaining funds were covered by National Geographic. Designing the balloon was taken up by Bruce Comstock and Susana Bronstein. Bruce, a world-famous balloonist, made sure this balloon could fly for its missions by equipping it with the multi-section envelope, light weight fabric, and aluminum burners. Susana Bronstein’s work transformed this blank scientific instrument into an eye-catching piece by featuring a macaroni penguin with its wings spread, ready to soar!

So far, the Soaring Penguin has visited Bolivia and Tanzania. The first potential flight was expected to be on Mt. Sajama, an extinct stratovolcano that boasts the highest peak in Bolivia. The glaciers at the summit provided an in-depth climate record for the South American highlands and global events over the past 25,000 years. However, the balloon was unable to fly due to high wind speeds and pilot troubles. Even without the aircraft, the Bolivia ice cores were safely collected.

The penguin had another opportunity in Tanzania to collect ice core samples from Mt. Kilimanjaro. Collecting the Mt. Kilimanjaro ice core record was a race against time. The estimated 11,700-year-old climate record was at risk of being lost forever due to climate change causing rapid ice loss on the summit. The ice core paleoclimatology group had prepared 24 permits from the Tanzanian government, but the last permit from Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park could not be obtained. Without this permit, the balloon could not be used during the research expedition. The prospects for a penguin flight were not lost, however. Since the penguin had permission to fly anywhere outside of the national park, the Soaring Penguin took to the skies in Moshi, Tanzania with Mt. Kilimanjaro as its backdrop. A renowned Serengeti balloonist, Jon Russel, piloted the balloon so some of our eager researchers could experience Moshi from a bird's eye view. The balloon flew over villages, farm fields, and even landed near a school where excited students could witness it take flight again. The penguin made quite a debut in the town and left as a great memory to all.

The creation and adventures of the Soaring Penguin have added another layer of innovation and history to the Byrd Center. Although future research expeditions will not be using the aircraft to transport ice cores, the ice core paleoclimatology group hopes to use it to measure atmospheric methane and pollen concentrations in the future. It will be exciting to see where the Soaring Penguin’s adventures will take it next.  

If you are interested in learning more about the Soaring Penguin, below are links to footage taken of the aircraft and some of the associated field-expeditions.

2000 expedition to Mt. Kilimanjaro

Soaring Penguin in Tanzania

2000 Tanzania expedition article