On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters decided to live out his lifelong dream of flying. He filled 42 weather balloons with helium and tied them to a metal lawn chair, planning to go up a few hundred feet or so, float out toward the Mojave Desert, then come back down by shooting some of the balloons with an air pistol. 42 weather balloons filled with helium, however, produces a lot more lift than Larry had anticipated. He shot into the air when his anchor rope broke, quickly reaching an altitude of three miles with winds pushing him in the neighborhood of LAX.
After 90 minutes, he shot out some of the balloons and began floating back down, landing unhurt. After searching through the rulebooks, the FAA hit him with several charges for recklessness and fined him $1500.
Larry attempted to parlay his feat into a career of sorts, appearing on Letterman and doing an ad for Timex. Sadly, fame was fleeting, and his stint as a motivational speaker was a brief one. After a breakup and lengthy unemployment, Larry hiked into Angeles National Forest and shot himself in 1993.
Larry has always been a combination of inspiration and cautionary tale for me. On the one hand, he was determined to achieve his dream no matter how audacious, unconventional or, well… stupid. He wasn’t smarter, stronger or richer than anyone else (in fact, being smarter or richer might have led him to try something else); anyone could have done what he did, but he was the one who simply went ahead and did it. On the other hand, he’s an excellent illustration of not building a career on one success; you need to be ready to follow up with new achievements, or be content with going back to how things were.
Anyway, happy anniversary Larry. That was one hell of a ride.
Y’know, flying up there in a lawn chair would, on the one hand, be rather cool. Floating all alone up there, three miles high (wouldn’t the air be a bit thin?), no noise, just floating on the breeze. On the other hand … it’s a frickin’ lawn chair. I mean, the wrong gust of wind could have turned that chair into a dunking booth, except without any water at the bottom, just three empty miles of HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I AM SO FRICKIN’ DEAD.
The stunt was crazy as hell, of course, and however odd his dream was, at least he had the gusto to go for it. So, here’s to you, Larry, for doing what no one else did – or would ever do again, because, man … who in the their right mind?
Adam Savage did. And even though there are doubts whether Adam is ever in his right mind, at least he was tethered so as to go up only about 75 feet or so.
It went like “Tower, I’ve got a man up here in a lawnchair with a gun.”; which is certainly one of the more improbable things they get to hear. I bet his wife was pissed, though.
If I recall, the movie was called “Deckchair Danny” - made in Australia and starring the Welsh guy who played Hugh Whatshisname’s flatmate in Notting Hill.
This was the episode that put me off of Mythbusters. They kept talking about the myth of Lawnchair Larry. If it really happened it is not a myth. One minute of half-assed Google fu would have told them that. :rolleyes:
By the way, anyone who is fascinated and inspired by this story (as I am) should at all costs AVOID the movie Danny Deckchair.
The balloon-chair is just a plot device to get Rhys Ifans (whom I like a lot) into some quaint and quirky little town where he falls in love and teaches the locals to enjoy life and maybe saves the town hall or something at the end. I don’t remember the denouement too clearly, because by that time I was reading a book.
IIRC, his stunt was also “replicated” on something like the A-Team or other TV show where the hero(oes) would whip some kind of improbably gadget out of their ass to save the day.