ADVENTURER David Hempleman-Adams is making final preparations ahead of his attempt to fly solo across the Atlantic in a wicker basket balloon next month.

The Swindon-born balloonist, 46, flew to his launch base in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, early on Monday hoping to become the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic east to west in a traditional balloon.

Last September a similar attempt failed when David's autopilot malfunctioned just 15 miles from the ocean, forcing him to ditch his liquid oxygen, propane gas and helium-laden balloon in Hebron, Connecticut.

The 3,337-mile journey, in the modified five-tonne Roziere class balloon, is expected to take around a week with his final destination in Europe something of a lottery, but his place among the greatest explorers is confirmed.

David's solicitor wife, Claire, 40, who lives with the couple's three daughters, Alicia, Camilla and Amelia in Box, near Bath, remained philosophical about her husband's potentially life-threatening adventure.

"I try not to think about it to be honest it's all too much sometimes when I think of all that water," she said. "There's no schedule, but at the moment the team will be preparing the equipment and watching the weather waiting to launch."

The nerve centre of David's record-breaking attempt will be in Bristol from where Belgian weather forecaster Luc Trullemans and logistics and flight director Dr David Owen will chart the balloon's progress.

The Atlantic has never been navigated in an open basket balloon.

Without the protection of a capsule David will be exposed to the Atlantic weather. He will also battle up-draughts, which could hurl the balloon above life-sustaining height, and down-draughts, which could send it into the ocean.

Before he set off for America he told the Advertiser: "Going up in June will give us much longer nights and hopefully we'll use less fuel. And if we do fail again it gives us enough time to plan for another go in September.

"It would be great to beat the US and get the world record because to be honest, I'd never have been able to live with myself if I hadn't given it another go."

The British solo distance record stands at 2,294 km and the British solo duration record is 132 hours. David's latest adventure comes just weeks after he walked 300 miles to the Geomagnetic North Pole part of it with a broken ankle.