JT from Georgia broke the record in July, having dreamed of doing so since the age of four • "The boy worked very hard preparing for the flight," his father said
An eight-year-old boy from the state of Georgia in the United States
Became the youngest hot air balloon pilot in history:
JT Head, now nine, broke the world record last July when he flew alone for twenty minutes at an altitude of one hundred and twenty meters.
The previous record holder is Bobby Bradley, who flew a hot air balloon at the age of nine.
The one who helped JT gain such good control of the balloon is his father Trapp, who serves as the owner of a balloon company and helped his son prepare for the flight for many years.
"For a long time I was interested in what my dad does, in balloons and everything around them - and in the end I decided I wanted to do a solo flight myself in a hot air balloon," he told local media.
He said he had been planning to do so since the age of four.
The first thing he did when he landed was call Bradley, who broke the record in 2011.
"Well, you did. You broke my record," he wrote to him.
His father Trapp said: "The boy worked very hard in the preparations for this flight."
He himself added: "You have to control all the steering buttons of the balloon, how to light the fire, how much heat is needed and how to move the balloon in a certain direction."
Referring to the flight itself he said: "It was amazing, I saw the sunset and saw in the valley a lot of cows grazing in the meadow."
The energetic young man has many other goals: "I want to both play football and fly balloons to greater heights," he laughs.