Julian Nott

Life Nott was born in Bristol, UK, on 22 June 1944 and attended Epsom College and St John's College, Oxford. He earned a master's in Physical Chemistry. After graduation Nott worked in Bangladesh with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Nott hypothesized that two millennia ago, the Nazca Lines geoglyphs could have been formed with guidance of Nazca leaders in a balloon, possibly the earliest balloon flights in human history. In 1975 to support this theory, he designed and piloted the Nazca Prehistoric Balloon, using only methods and materials available to the Pre-Inca Peruvians 1,000 years ago.

Nott pioneered the use of hybrid energy for lift, where solar power is a significant heat source, and using this technology in 1981 he crossed the English Channel. This hybrid balloon relied only the heat of the Sun to warm its lifting air during the crossing. For this historic flight, Nott used Dominic Michaelis’s solar balloon (aircraft registration number G-BAVU). On 22 August 1981, lifting off North West of Dover, he silently crossed the channel landing at Tournehem-sur-la-Hem of the Pas-de-Calais in France. Using the burner once, during the landing, to arrest the descent rate. The British Balloon Museum preserves the solar balloon G-BAVU envelope.

On 1 November 1984, Nott became the first person to pilot a “pumpkin” superpressure balloon (SPB). He flew the SPB Wilson Endeavour across Australia from Pearce Air Force Base in Perth to Broken Hill. He believed this was his greatest achievement and planned to use the SPB to circumnavigate the globe.

In March 2019, following the successful test flight of an experimental pressurized high-altitude balloon over Warner Springs, California, and after a successful landing, his gondola became loose and fell down a slope with Nott inside. He was taken to Palomar Medical Center Escondido, where he died from the serious injuries of this accident. Nott is buried at the Compton Village Cemetery in Compton, Guildford Borough, Surrey, England.