A Man Flew in a Chair Tied to 45 Balloons

[Music] so they cut the cord and seconds later the man sitting on the lawn chair tied to a balloon cluster was soaring up among the clouds this sounds like some kind of up style fairy tale but believe it or not this story actually happened for real in 1982 once upon a time in 1949 to be more precise a boy named Larry Walters was born in Los Angeles California he dreamed of the sky but his dream to be a US Air Force pilot was not destined to come true because of his poor eyesight so Larry became a truck driver and lived like any other person in San Pedro his love for the sky and his dream to fly didn't go away though Larry remembered an idea that occurred to him when he was 13 back then he first saw weather balloons hanging off the ceiling at a military store the balloons were staying afloat in the air and young Larry thought why not take advantage of that you don't need a pilot's license to fly helium-filled balloons right so 33 year old Larry decided to bring his dream to life 20 years later and he started preparations for his flight to figure out how many balloons he'd need for the experiment he had to have done some calculations the lifting force of helium is one gram per liter that means 10 litres of helium in a balloon can lift 10 grams a regular amusement-park balloon is about 1 foot in diameter and it can hold 14 litres of helium so it can lift around 14 grams if you ignore the weight of the balloon and the string to lift a person weighing 175 pounds you need a whopping 5,700 balloons but if you get 10-foot army surplus store balloons instead you'd only need like eight of those to fly Larry was true to his dream and went for weather balloons instead together with his then-girlfriend he bought 45 weather balloons and helium tanks he knew it would raise some questions so to prepare for that he forged a requisition from film Studios saying he was an employee and they needed balloons for a TV commercial on launch day July 2nd 1982 they filled the floatation devices with helium attached them to a lawn chair they named inspiration one and packed the necessary supplies some sandwiches a bottle of soda a camera a CB radio and pellets why the pellets well Larry planned to reach the Mojave Desert and shoot out the balloons to land safely so lawn chair Larry as he was nicknamed later strapped on a parachute commanded his friends to cut the cord tied to his Jeep and soared into the sky he went way higher than he planned to 16,000 feet Larry was moving over Long Beach crossed Long Beach Airport corridor and finally floated into Los Angeles International Airport controlled airspace the wind was blowing strong in his face and the speed he was moving wasn't ideal for stopping Larry was getting nervous and got in touch with air-traffic control with his CB radio to inform them of his presence at least two commercial airplanes also spotted the traveler and let air-traffic control and the Federal Aviation Administration know there was a strange unidentified flying object in the sky things were getting out of control Larry was way higher moving way faster and going way further than he planned he wanted to land but he was afraid popping the balloons would make him lose his balance and he just fall out of the sky 45 minutes after takeoff he shot out some of the balloons and started slowly descending another 45 minutes later he was on the ground again safe and sound while there was no damage to the adventurous traveler whatsoever people in the surrounding area felt his presence without knowing he was there the balloons that got tangled on the powerlines in Long Beach caused a massive power outage that lasted 20 minutes though Larry wasn't injured and made his dream come true the Welcome Party he got back on wasn't exactly what he was hoping for Long Beach authorities arrested him but soon let him go with a fine of $4,000 for violation of Federal Aviation Regulations and operating a civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate the second part was dropped later because his aircraft was a lawn chair and it wasn't mentioned in any legislation so he ended up paying a fine of $1,500 and became somewhat of a celebrity in one of his interview some time later Larry said the flight was something I had to do I had this dream for 20 years and if I hadn't done it I would have ended up in the funny farm after his beautiful flight lawn chair Larry appeared on The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman he was given the title of at risk survivor at the 1993 Darwin Awards and the first-place award from the bonehead Club of Dallas a San Diego ban pinback dedicated a song to him named walters and so did an austin artists egg beau with Larry Walters in the book all I really needed to know I learned in kindergarten a whole section was dedicated to Larry's flight using it as a great example of living your dreams and letting your imagination fly literally to top it all off there was even an episode of Spongebob Squarepants the sponge who could fly inspired by the story all this made lawn chair Larry so self-confident he gave up his job as a truck driver and decided to become a motivational speaker to inspire other people to never forget their dreams unfortunately his lectures weren't a success and didn't bring him money or fame maybe it was out of disappointment or out of love for his biggest fan a neighborhood boy named Jerry that Larry parted with his famous chair and gave it to Jerry some time later the Smithsonian Institution ask Larry Force flying apparatus to make it one of their exhibits he regretted giving up the chair but what's done can't be undone Jerry grew up but kept the chair in his garage with some of the tethers and water jugs that were originally attached to it for stability in 2014 Gerry temporarily donated it to the San Diego Air and Space Museum and it was on display for everyone to see Larry Walters may not have become the most successful motivational speaker but he sure motivated quite a few people to follow his example in fact he inspired a whole extreme-sport named cluster ballooning its fans strapped themselves in a harness and attach themselves to rubber balloons filled with helium to fly on July 7th 2007 a gas station owner from Oregon used 105 large helium balloons and plastic bags filled with 20 gallons of water tied to a lawn chair to fly 240 miles he shot bb's to let some helium out and land but later came up with a new way of doing it to make the descent way smoother a year later he used that mechanism on his second flight and traveled in his lawn chair for nine hours and 12 minutes On January 13 2008 a human rights defender from Brazil went further with the idea and crossed the border between two countries Brazil and Argentina on 600 party balloons filled with helium and tied to a chair two years later a traveler from the US crossed the English Channel in an office chair going from [ __ ] England to Dunkirk France over the White Cliffs of Dover that must have been a scenic four hour ride for a guy in an office chair three years later he tried to go transatlantic yes you heard that right transatlantic on balloons but the attempt wasn't a success and he had to land in Newfoundland by the way that guy created the house that was in the up movie for a National Geographic feature another traveller who was brave enough to try cluster ballooning abroad was from England he flew 15 miles over South Africa on October 20th 2017 the Guinness Book of World Records currently features the longest duration flight by helium balloons that lasted 13 hours 36 minutes and 57 seconds an American adventure flew across North Carolina he was also the first cluster balloon er to start his journey during the day and fly through the knife on 57 balloons so do you think it's fun or totally crazy to fly on helium balloons let me know down in the comments if you learned something new today then hey give this video a like share it with a friend but don't go anywhere just yet especially in a balloon we have over 2000 cool videos for you to check out all you have to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy stay on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 135,103

Rating: 4.8399472 out of 5

Keywords: Larry Walters, Lawnchair Larry, cluster ballooning, cluster ballooning videos, cluster balloon flights, The the Guinness Book of World Records, helium balloons, make your dreams come true, make your dreams happen, amazing stories, true stories, shocking facts, facts about people, unusual things

Id: VHV7o01EN_g

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2019