FAI followed with a watchful eye the dispute between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). The outcome of the dispute has implications for the FAI community and its events, as FAI is an IOC-recognised Federation and a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.

WADA has issued a Question & Answer document to provide additional information to International Sports Federations.

The recent developments include:

Children across the world have enjoyed playing with a simple mechanical toy that uses a twisted rubber band to give propulsion to a winged aircraft, yet not many realise that it was the French inventor Alphonse Pénaud who first used twisted rubber to power a flying model in 1870 and adopt its successful propulsion effect to make a lasting impact on the future of aviation.

On 25 May 2011, German balloonist Wilhelm (Willi) Eimers set a new FAI world record for duration of a flight in a 250-400m3 gas balloon.

Eimers took off from Gladbeck in Germany and spent 23 hours, 18 minutes, and 30 seconds in the air before landing in Steinfurt, Germany.

The world record he set on that day 10 years ago still stands today. 

Ninety years ago, on 27 May 1931, Swiss physicist and balloonist Auguste Piccard made history by becoming - together with his co-pilot Paul Kipfer - one of the first two humans to enter the stratosphere.

Safe within the pressurised cabin he invented, Piccard flew his enormous gas balloon to a height of 15,781m above the earth, setting an FAI world record in the process.

Today, the FAI commemorates his incredible feat, which was a major turning point for both aviation and space travel.

We are extremely pleased to be able to inform you that WADA has at last accepted that the Mondial be held in Russia in 2021. You will find the official text below: 

"Having reviewed the information provided by your organization and based thereon, we acknowledge your assessment that it would be legally or practically impossible to withdraw the Event from Russia or to reassign it to another country. Against this background, we do not consider the hosting of the Event in Tanay to be in violation of the Award".

The 115th FAI General Conference 2021 and annual Awards Announcement will again be held online due to the uncertainty of hosting a physical event during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Awards Announcement evening is confirmed as 9 November 2021 with the General Conference from 9 to 11 November 2021.

Five years ago, on 23 June 2016, the explorer and innovator Bertrand Piccard made the world’s first Atlantic solar-powered flight, flying from New York, USA to Seville, Spain on the 17^th leg of the Solar Impulse 2 project’s historic round-the-world voyage.

The flight, which used no fossil fuels and made zero emissions, broke four FAI records for distance, speed and altitude.

The 114th FAI General Conference 2020 took place online due to COVID restrictions, and the minutes from the dedicated sessions are now available to download.

Delegates around the world were able to exercise their voting rights through the use of electronic tools.

Annexes available in the download include votes, which delegates made using electronic voting tools, as well as details of decisions and debates including the 2021 budget.

On 5 May 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space, breaking two FAI records for highest altitude and greatest mass lifted to altitude for his suborbital spaceflight.

Shepard’s achievement came just 23 days after Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth.

It’s 60 years to the day since US Naval Lieutenant Commander Malcom D. Ross set two FAI ballooning world records by soaring to an altitude of 34,668m above the ground.

Accompanied by Lieutenant Commander Victor G. Prather, a medical officer from the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, Ross took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Antietam the Gulf of Mexico on the morning of May 4, 1961.