I photographed this Stratosphere Balloon Gondola at the Brussels Military Museum
On 18 August 1932, Auguste Piccard and assistant Max Cosyns flew this gondola to an altitude of 16,201 meters — besting the previous record set by Piccard the year before in the Stratosphere Balloon Gondola 1931. The gondola was painted hal black and half white to regulate the cabin’s interior by either absorbing or reflecting the sun’s rays.
Piccard and his wife would advance the record yet again in the Stratosphere Balloon Gondola 1933