Richard Branson's Moskito Island, British Virgin Islands

In 1986 Branson was part of a two-man team that set a record for a powerboat crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. In hot-air ballooning he and Swedish aeronaut Per Lindstrand became in 1987 the first team to cross the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon and in 1991 the first to cross the Pacific Ocean. Branson was also a member of teams that made three failed attempts in the late 1990s at round-the-world balloon flights.