TOME, N.M. — Nine-year-old Bobby Bradley floated into history early Saturday, taking off solo in a hot air balloon and landing perfectly 26 minutes later to become the youngest trained pilot to accomplish such a feat.
Showing maturity and composure well beyond his years, Bobby proved any doubters wrong as he strategically touched down on a dirt road — exactly as his parents had instructed. Some among a small crowd doused the boy with non-alcoholic champagne and silly string.
“I didn’t want to land,” he said afterward. “I wanted to keep going. It’s fun out there.”
Although his mother, Tami, said she would not normally recommend that 9-year-olds fly solo, she said it was a natural progression for her son, who is “not your normal 9-year-old.”
Bobby is a fourth-generation balloonist and has been flying in them for more than half his life, with his parents and some of the sport’s most experienced and decorated pilots. But he can’t get his pilot’s license until he is 16, so his family and friends built the smaller balloon that is classified as an ultra-light aircraft to enable Saturday’s solo flight.
