Hopefuls for first round-the-world balloon trip postpones trip
     WASHINGTON - November 24, 1997 2:23 p.m. EST - A U.S.-Australian
 balloon team is delaying for a year an attempt to complete history's
 first round-the-world balloon trip because of financial concerns,
 one of the team's pilots said Monday.
     "One of our contractors has failed," said U.S. balloonist Bob
 Martin, who revealed the aborted plans in a telephone interview.
     "Unfortunately we won't be able to get another one before the
 opening of our launch window in the first week of January in
 Australia."
     The team needed about $1.6 million for the trip, Martin said.
 "We are very close to that, but we still lack a small amount of
 money," he added.
     As a result, Martin said, the team is postponing its round-the-
 world journey until January, 1999.
     Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the team was expected to de-
 part December 28 on board a balloon dubbed "Dymocks Flyer" from
 Alice Springs, Australia.
     Of the six teams expected to attempt the world tour this winter,
 only the team of Martin and Australian John Wallington was expected
 to float in the stratosphere.
     Tailored after giant weather balloons floated by the U.S. space
 agency NASA, the "Dymocks Flyer" was expected to float westwardly,
 climbing to a maximum altitude of nearly 129,000 feet.
    That height would allow the balloonists to avoid the poor weather
 likely to buffet the team's lower-flying competitors, Martin said.
     The pilots were expected to make their tour in a balloon with a
 pressurized gondola similar to spacecraft, and equipped with life-
 support systems equivalent to those used by the U.S. Mercury and
 Gemini space capsules at the dawn of the space age.
     Among the balloonists still in the running for the world tour
 include American Steve Fossett, British billionaire Richard Branson
 and the Swiss-Belgian team of Betrand Piccard and Wim Verstraeten.
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        Skydiving instructor dies after colliding with student
     QUINCY, Fla. -- November 24, 1997 1:41 p.m. EST -- A skydiving
 instructor fell to his death after he was knocked unconscious at
 11,000 feet in a collision with a student.
     Authorities searched a swampy forest Monday for the student, who
 was presumed dead as well.
     Instructor Scott Matthew Smith's parachute didn't open after
 Sunday's collision.
     The student's chute had opened before the collision, but he,
 too, was knocked out, and there is only a slim chance he survived
 the drop, Sheriff W.A. Woodham said.
     The 44-year-old student, whose name was not released, was on his
 first jump. Apparently the wind jerked him up into Smith after his
 chute opened, Woodham said. The student didn't respond to repeated
 radio calls.
     Smith, 40, had jumped more than 3,500 times and was a certified
 instructor with the United States Parachute Association, said Cindy
 Pirkkala, owner of the School of Human Flight.
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