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Before "Baloon Boy", There Was Lawn Chair Larry
Larry Walters took flight on July 2, 1982 in a homemade aircraft. Dubbed Inspiration I, the "flying machine" consisted of an ordinary patio chair with 45 helium-filled weather balloons attached to it. Walters rose to an altitude of 11,000 feet (3,400 m) and floated from his point of origin in San Pedro, California into controlled airspace near Los Angeles International Airport. More..
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Added: Oct 21 2009 In: entertainment
- Tags:
- baloon boy,
- lawn chair larry,
- helium baloon
- Views: 28805 |
- Votes: 10 |
- Recommendations: 5 |
- Comments: 61
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Comments - sort by newest to oldest
16,000 feet in the air is pretty damn high when all that is between you and eternity is a lawn chair.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "Fenrisulfr" (R)
Didn't Myth Busters say this couldn't be done. Good find CT. Two thumbs up, and wiggle them around a little.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "buttkracken" (R)
where is a airgun if u need one. haha. imagine shooting balloon for ballon.. hahaha.. that would be awesome.. but not for him
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "WASTED-GERMAN-YOUTH" (R)
Loved lawn chair Larry. Very sad story after, quit his job went on a speaking tour then offed himself in a fit of depression a few years ago. He received an honourable mention in the Darwin Awards (Lost because he lived)
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "cookie659" (R)
Now that took balls..and balloons. I can't imagine what the airline pilots were thinking when they spotted that guy.'
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "Punch_The_Monkey" (R)
lmao ..I want what this guy was smoking.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "playbynight" (R)
No, their myth was a kid with a bunch of balloons her parent bought at like a carnival or something.
They showed that it would take a hell of a lot more than any vendor would be walking around with.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "moefugger" (R)
Dude was nuts. And had nuts the size of Kansas. RIP lawn Chair guy.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "little_brown_ring" (R)
http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "little_brown_ring" (R)
i still want to try that
i wouldn't go as high, though. maybe 10 feet off the ground at most
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "lasrever" Premium
An Army vetern who served in Vietnam, Walters never married and had no children. He is survived by his mother and two sisters.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "little_brown_ring" (R)
i wouldn't go as high, though. maybe 10 feet off the ground at most
I used to have no fear of heights; I worked as a roofer for years. But something in me has changed, I'm not as comfortable with heights as I used to be.
No reason for it, it just is :/
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "little_brown_ring" (R)
Can't imagine they did spot him. Flying into a cloudy sky held aloft by white weather balloons is pretty good camouflage
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "fr33thinker" (R)
so was it 42 or 45 balloons? 11000 or 16000 feet?
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "YeahTom" (R)
Crap... meant to post the article:
From The Los Angeles Times, 24 November 1993
(by Myrna Oliver, Times Staff Writer)
Larry Walters, who achieved dubious fame in 1982 when he piloted a lawn chair attached to helium balloons 16,000 feet above Long Beach, has committed suicide at the age of 44.
Walters died Oct. 6 after hiking to a remote spot in Angeles National Forest and shooting himself in the heart, his mother, Hazel Dunham, revealed Monday. She said relatives knew of no motive for the suicide. "It was something I had to do," Walters told The Times after his flight from San Pedro to Long Beach on July 2, 1982. "I had this dream for 20 years, and if I hadn't done it, I would have ended up in the funny farm."
Walters rigged 42 weather balloons to an aluminum lawn chair, pumped them full of helium and had two friends untether the craft, which he had dubbed "Inspiration I."
He took along a large bottle of soda, a parachute and a portable CB radio to alert air traffic to his presence. He also took a camera but later admitted, "I was so amazed by the view I didn't even take one picture."
Walters, a North Hollywood truck driver with no pilot or ballon training, spent about two hours aloft and soared up to 16,000 feet -- three miles -- startling at least two airline pilots and causing one to radio the Federal Aviation Administration.
Shivering in the high altitude, he used a pellet gun to pop balloons to come back to earth. On the way down, his balloons draped over power lines, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes.
The stunt earned Walters a $1,500 fine from the FAA, the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas, the altitude record for gas-filled clustered balloons (which could not be officially recorded because he was unlicensed and unsanctioned) and international admiration. He appeared on "The Tonight Show" and was flown to New York to be on "Late Night With David Letterman," which he later described as "the most fun I've ever had."
"I didn't think that by fulfilling my goal in life -- my dream -- that would create such a stir," he later told The Times, "and make people laugh."
Walters abandoned his truck-driving job and went on the lecture circuit, remaining sporadically in demand at motivational seminars. But he said he never made much money from his innovative flight and was glad to keep his simple lifestyle.
He gave his "aircraft" -- the aluminum lawn chair -- to admiring neighborhood children after he landed, later regretting it.
In recent years, Walters hiked the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the U.S. Forest Service.
"I love the peace and quiet," he told The Times in 1988. "Nature and I get along real well."
An Army veteran who served in Vietnam, Walters never married and had no children. He is survived by his mother and two sisters.
Posted Oct-21-2009 by "little_brown_ring" (R)