STAFF at Dorchester engineering specialist Dot Composites have a good reason to celebrate the landing of adventurer Steve Fossett at the end of his round-the-world balloon flight yesterday morning.

The Piddlehinton firm built the specially-designed gondola in which the 58-year-old millionaire spent 14 days aloft during his epic solo circumnavigation.

It is a huge boost to the firm, which has only been in operation since October.

Managing director Bob Tett, 47, of Dorchester, said the gondola was finished in November last year after a month of intensive work.

He said: "The gondola has survived and apparently he had quite a rough landing. It is excellent news. It's a local thing - it shows what skills are available and what can be done locally.

"I would guess the gondola would probably go to a museum somewhere now. It's a part of history. But the main thing is he got round - it's absolutely brilliant."

Mr Tett said: "People don't appreciate what the risk to life is. At the end of the day it's a very small, Spartan container and your life hangs on it surviving. The main difficulty in making it was working inside. It's just a small hatch at the top."

He praised fellow workers on the project Ian Chaloner and Julian Mowlam.

Mr Fossett, who swam the English channel in 1985 and holds a number of speed sailing records, landed near the Australian outback town of Birdsville, in the state of Queensland.

After suffering severe turbulence and a life-threatening propane gas fire during the night, the Chicago stock-broker had his parachute on in case of emergency.

He also reported a "rock and roll ride" above a natural gas field at 5,000 feet that forced him to climb to 8,000 feet.

Mr Fossett's record-breaking achievement closes the chapter on a personal marathon which began a decade ago and has seen him make six record attempts.

During the flight Mr Fossett often hurtled along at ground speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.