Film of the attempted crossing of the Atlantic from Tenerife to Barbados in the hydrogen balloon "Small World" in December 1958. The crew, who designed the ballon and planned the whole voyage consisted of Arnold "Bushy" Eiloart (Commander), his son Tim (Radioman), Colin Mudie (Navigator), and his wife Rosemary Mudie (Photographer). The film opens with scenes of testing the balloon prior to the actual attempt, with the balloon being inflated at Cardington, outside airship hangars. A special feature of the design is that the basket is designed as a sailing boat, to be used if the party were to be forced to ditch in the sea. Wing Commander Ralph Booth, captain of the R-100 airship supervises the testing, and is also involved in heading the launching crew. The balloon was launched from Tenerife, in the south of the island, at 1 o'clock in the morning of 12th December 1958, after being frustrated and delayed by high winds and bad weather. There are various scenes of the take off, and activities in the basket. They fly the balloon for 94 hours before being forced to ditch in the sea through problems with maintaining altitude and having to sail the rest of the way to Barbados, which took them about 3 weeks. There are numerous scenes on the small "boat" with rationing, sailing and using instruments such as a chronometer. They eventually land in Barbados in January 1959, towed in by a fishing boat which charged them 50 dollars. A large crowd greet them, with people running along the beach, as the populace had been alerted to their impending arrival by reporters and local radio.