According to Xiaoxiang Morning Post, 46-year-old Lei Xiang successfully flew his own hot-air airship 577 meters above the ground in Changsha, Hunan province on December 4, 2011.

His self-made airship, equipped with an engine, a flame projector and a pilot seat along with gas and fuel, was 26 meters long, 9 meters wide and 15 meters tall. The dark-blue and peach-red airship, which was designed to challenge the 458 meters altitude world record set by the BX-2 airship with an altitude of 500 meters, had taken Lei over one year to build.

Lei decided to fly his airship on a 4-square kilometer open ground. At 2:56 pm, Lei Xiang and his team finally ended their wait when Lei proclaimed, “there’s the northeast wind, and the opportunity has arrived.” Then he jumped into the pilot seat and lit up the flame projector. The airship gently took off and gradually flew away with a steady speed of 4 meters per second. For a while the airship flew at its planned altitude of 500 meters; however, a strong updraft suddenly pushed the airship up to 577 meters. He knew if he continued to ascend, the airship would quickly run out of fuel, resulting to great danger. “I was lucky that the air current quickly went away allowing me to descend my ship,” said Lei. At around 3:10 pm, the airship safely circled its way down with its empennage stuck.

Although with many obstaclees, the result greatly exceeded Lei’s expectation. He was very excited saying, “I feel so cool. My work over the past year had paid off.” Currently he is to report this new world record to the Aeronautic International Federation.