ist Bertrand Piccard and engineer Brian Jones flew into clear blue skies above this Alpine resort just after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) on what Piccard said could be a "marathon flight". For Piccard, who comes from a famous family of Swiss adventurers, it is his third attempt to become the first man to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon. His first bid two years ago ended after a few hours when he and two crewmates came down in the Mediterranean, and on his second he was forced to land in Myanmar after China refused to allow a flight over its territory. This time, Piccard has clearance to pass through a narrow Chinese corridor, but the British team of his former colleague Andy Elson and Colin Prescot are already over south-east Asia and avoiding China after taking off from Spain nearly two weeks ago in their Cable and Wireless craft. Piccard, celebrating his 41st birthday, and Jones, a 51-year-old former British air force pilot, will pass over France and Spain and out to Mauritania in north-west Africa before turning to catch jet-stream winds and heading east.