Science: Stunts Aloft

"What a mess!" cried irrepressible Jeannette Piccard. "I wanted to land on the White House lawn."

Mrs. Piccard popped her head out of the gondola of the stratosphere balloon in which she and her husband had taken off eight hours before from Detroit's Ford Airport. She found herself on a wooded farm near Cadiz, Ohio. The big bag, limp, torn and empty, was dismally draped over a tall elm. In a treetop the Piccards' U. S. flag flapped bravely.

The Piccard flight barely missed coming to an end at the start last week. After months...

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