Since he was a child, Don Cameron has been interested in anything that flies. He grew up on the outskirts of Glasgow and, as a student at Glasgow University, joined the University Air Squadron. Interest in the mechanics of movement, if not flight, was a family tradition. His grandfather was an engineer, who turned his hand to making model steam engines and boats.
Don Cameron"s first job was at Bristol Aircraft, where he worked as an engineer. He then had jobs in the steel works at Lanwern and for Rio-Tinto Zine in Bristol, working with computers. In the mid-sixties came news of American experiments with hot air balloons that crossed the Atlantic, so he and a couple of friends decided to build their own balloon. Probably the first hot air balloon in western Europe, they called it the Bristol Belle. Now there are 300 balloons in this country alone—and at least two-thirds of them have been made by the firm Don Cameron set up, Cameron Balloons.
At 40 he has already been halfway round the world by balloons. In 1972 he piloted the first hot air balloon to cross the Swiss Alps; and later that year he took part in what he calls "an odd expedition" to the Sahara Desert, with two balloons and a truck to carry the gas. He has crossed the Channel by balloon and even flown in the Arctic Circle in one. He started the business in the basement of the large Victorian house, where he lives with his wife Kim and two children. Now Cameron Balloons has its own premises in an old church hall in Bristol, making about 150 balloons a year. They include specially designed balloons for advertising purposes. The firm exports all over the world and is setting up a factory in America, where balloons will be made for them under license. The turnover is now around $ 500 000 a year and there is a staff of about 25.Don Cameron"s company ______.