Researchers fly away from gravity on the 35th ESA Parabolic
Flight Campaign Zero-G flying is just like throwing a football
through the air, explains test pilot Captain Gilles Le Barzic as
he briefs an audience about to leave gravity behind: "Except
instead of a ball we have an aircraft." Le Barzic is one of
three expert pilots on ESA's A-300 'Zero-G' Airbus, billed by
its operator Novespace as 'the plane that removes gravity'. The
aircraft has been specially strengthened to fly parabolic arcs
enabling researchers to carry out experiments in weightlessness
without going into space. Last week saw the start of ESA's 35th
Parabolic Flight Campaign. Twelve teams from seven European
countries and Canada and Russia gathered at Bordeaux-Mérignac
Airport, in France, to prepare and fit their experiments inside
the modified white-padded Airbus fuselage. On 14 October 2003,
the A-300 lifts off for the first of three consecutive flight
days. Flying 31 parabolas each two-and-a-half-hour flight
provides experimenters with a