The difficulties they faced were demonstrated by the number of failed attempts there have been. But each attempt learned from the previous one and thanks to improvements in weather forecasting, it became just possible to stand up to the wind and the elements.”Richard Noble, leader of Thrust SSC team, which broke the sound barrier on land, 1997″Invariably I find success in breaking records comes to small outfits of dedicated people like this one without a lot of money. It is not something I would scoff at.”Sir Chris Bonington, led expedition to Everest’s south-west face, 1975″It is a wonderful achievement. We cannot see something as possible and not do it.”Sir Ranulph Fiennes, first to circumnavigate the earth via the poles, 1982″It was a worthwhile endeavour and stands on its own two feet alongside the first ascent of Mount Everest. It is part of continual aspiring that characterises the human race and makes us different from animals. But what about here on earth? The great adventures will be under the sea, predicts Sir Chris Bonington, while Richard Noble points to other frontiers. “There will be breaking the sound barrier on water, running the three-minute mile, reaching a 1,000 miles an hour on land and 500 miles an hour in a wheel- driven vehicle.”So there are still many challenges ahead, although few offer the romance of flying around the world by balloon in a quarter of the time even Jules Verne dared imagine.The ExpertVerdictsSir Roger Bannister, who ran first mile under four minutes in 1954″I see this wonderful success as achieved for glory but not as vainglorious.

There may eventually be, suggests Sir Ranulph Fiennes, an attempt to follow his example of a circumpolar journey. But the only balloon journeys which will again truly capture public attention will be the solo trips, like Reinhold Messner’s solo ascent of Everest in 1981, unaided by oxygen.Are there, then, any great world firsts to be achieved after this weekend? Space travel is inevitably the final frontier. There will be more races, more dicing with death, but the big race between Mr Branson, the Breitling Orbiter III and others is over. He had trekked 130,000 miles from Greenwich, spent three years travelling and become, with his colleague, the first person to go to the South and North Poles in one trip. Yet, when he got back to Greenwich, his arrival was overshadowed by the return of soldiers from the Falklands.Sir Ranulph’s experience demonstrates how once the big success is recorded in a field, the public loses interest and acknowledgement comes only from aficionados. Thus, in 1975, Sir Chris Bonington led a brave and successful attempt on the steepest approach to Everest.

But the adventure never had the huge appeal of the first ascent in 1952 when Sir Edmund Hillary famously “knocked the bastard off”.The same will now be true for ballooning. Such clarity, appealing to the public imagination, is now rare for explorers and adventurers.Sir Ranulph Fiennes recalls with sadness his return in 1982 from successfully completing the first circumpolar navigation of the earth. After all, Brian Jones was only a last minute choice for the flight.The goals of the adventure were also unusually clear for a world audience. That also made this outmoded form of transport curiously contemporary. Instead of being about conquering nature in the style of an imperial age, this adventure was about harnessing the earth’s forces in a more harmonious, Nineties’ manner.Most people could also imagine that maybe it could have been them flying at 35,000ft above the earth in a tiny capsule, prey to the elements, sailing across a giant planet. “I don’t think we ever thought we would help anyone trying to cope with the M25,” said Mr Noble yesterday. “But we still had more than 50 million people visiting our website following our progress.”"We all need to be inspired and enlightened by such achievements.