Lawnchair Larry: The Man Who Flew in a Lawnchair

this video was made possible by curiosity stream when you sign up at curiosity stream comm / hii you'll also get access to nebula the streaming video platform that H AI is a partner in school we learn about a loss of American icons but many of our nation's greatest heroes get left out we learn about Paul Revere's midnight ride but not about Sybil Ludington a 16 year old girl who wrote 40 rain-soaked miles to rally Continental Army troops we learn about Rosa Parks courageous bus protests but not about Elizabeth Jennings Graham who refused to leave a whites-only horse carriage in 1854 and we learn about the Wright brothers flying the first plane but not about Larry Walters a truck driver who in 1982 tied a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair and floated 16,000 feet into the freakin sky like some sort of redneck Icarus trying to escape from Los Angeles today we correct this grave omission in the ink of the American story today we tell the tale of lawn chair Larry when Larry Walters was born in Los Angeles in 1949 there was no way to know that he would go on to become one of the most hard-core individuals in the history of the world joining the likes of Genghis Khan Winston Churchill Betty White and the turtle from Finding Nemo the first years of Larry's life were relatively inauspicious he had hoped one day to become an Air Force pilot but soon discovered he couldn't due to poor eyesight because it turns out seeing is important for pilots despite his poor vision at the age 13 he saw something that would forever change his life and dare I say the entire course of aviation history it was a couple of weather balloons hanging from the ceiling of a military surplus store Larry looked at them and had the idea of using them to fly it was the type of seemingly impossible plan many of us had when we were young like digging a hole so deep it went to China or attaining social mobility in America or getting through life without making the I guess it's free joke when a cashier has trouble scanning something but at the age of 32 Larry made a decision that is somehow simultaneously the dumbest and the most brilliant choice of all time he purchased 45 eight-foot weather balloons bunch of helium tanks and turned his childhood dream into a reality because that quantity of weather balloons isn't commercially available for normal people Larry had to do would all great explorers must do overcome his foes with the spirit of adventure in this case the foes were federal regulations and the spirit of adventure was a fake form saying the balloons were for a TV commercial Larry then gathered the rest of the high-tech gear necessary for his journey a lawn chair a sandwich a pellet gun a CB radio a parachute and of course an ice-cold beer and once he was ready in blatant violation of FAA regulations but firmly within the spirit of American greatness he took off quickly Larry began to ascend both into the sky and into the pantheon of legendary explorers like Amerigo Vespucci and Dora soon he reached 16,000 feet about half the altitude that planes fly at where the temperature is about two degrees Fahrenheit or negative 17 degrees Celsius in other words it's the type of situation where you'd probably want more than a lawn chair and a sandwich for protection after being seen by two commercial airliners and presumably making the pilots seriously reconsider their sanity Larry decided it was time to come down and so he began shooting his pellet guns at the balloons until enough popped that he started to descend a method so beautifully hilarious that it's far better than any joke I could write about it he then accidentally dropped the pellet gun but still slowly came back down to earth where finally an ending that feels written by either Wes Anderson or a drunk toddler his balloon strings got tangled in a power line in Long Beach and caused a twenty-minute power blackout when Larry finally made it to the ground something strange happened instead of being immediately given the key to the city or awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as he should have been he was arrested by the Long Beach Police Department after Larry's arrest they explained to local reporters we know he broke some parts of the Federal Aviation Act and as soon as we decide what part it is some type of charge will be filed if he had a pilot's license we'd suspend that but he doesn't eventually Larry was fined $1,500 for various violations of the US Federal Aviation Regulations which isn't so bad considering he got to be on Late Night with David Letterman in an ad for Timex and eventually in a YouTube video play a very cool and fun channel you should totally subscribe to speaking of fun things that you should totally subscribe to the curiosity stream nebula bundle package is the absolute best deal in streaming for just $20 a year you get access to two great streaming sites curiosity stream come to thousands of top quality documentaries and nonfiction shows and nebula come to these special higher budget projects from all your favorite online educational creators like the game show by Tom Scott that I went on that will be released soon but in the meantime you can also watch all hii and Wendover videos and free on nebula which is possible because of watching on their supports us and all their other independent creators far more than on other platforms you can sign up for the bundle deal giving you access to both curiosity stream and nebula for just $20 a year at curiosity stream comm /h a bye

Channel: Half as Interesting

Views: 339,791

Rating: 4.9163651 out of 5

Keywords: lawnchair, larry, flight, aviation, weird, strange, weather baloon, up, half as interesting, hai

Id: ghWOCW2DPyk

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/definitelyasatanist]

Anyone here see the Jon Bois video on this?