How to Make a Balloon-Powered Lawn Chair

Ah, the wonder of flight—to be soaring through the heavens, nudging clouds, nodding to winged travelers and looking down at earth with just a bit of deserved haughtiness. From Flyer at Kitty Hawk to Discovery at Cape Canaveral, flight has lured thousands to the skies. Most men and women who are truly passionate about soaring above turn to the Air Force or NASA or commercial flight schools. There are those, however, who take matters into their own hands. So it was with Larry Walters, who, in 1982, set to the sky in his lawn chair and 45 attached weather balloons that shot him upward some 16,000 feet, and Kent Couch, who repeated the feat in July of 2007. If the heavens beckon you (or preferably a teddy bear with a mini version of the balloon-powered lawn chair), all you need is the obvious combination of balloon and chair, but none of the previous chair-flyers were so cavalier. They went prepared.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Balloons (weather for you; party for a teddy bear)
• Teddy bear (optional, but recommended)
• Helium
• Lawn chair
• Science book
• Calculator
• Scale
• Ballast (water jugs)
• Tether-line
• GPS (global positioning system)
• Cell phone
• Parachute
• Pellet gun

1. Be aware that while flying may offer the ultimate rush in freedom, it likely will not be free. The FAA has far-reaching tentacles and regulates airspace across the nation. It also dictates who can and cannot fly. Certainly, you are not required to have a pilot’s license to ride your lawn chair, but the above-mentioned Larry Walters wound up shelling out $1,500 in fines for his misadventure when he floated into restricted airspace.

2. Tether your lawn chair to an immovable object.

3. Fill balloons with helium. This is where it gets tricky. How many balloons? How much helium? If pioneer Larry had done it correctly, he would not have wound up too high, too far, too fast. He wouldn’t have needed to call for help from his CB radio and wouldn’t have settled into power lines, upsetting the power grid for Long Beach, California. Since it’s safer to use the teddy-bear approach, have some fun and experiment. No one’s going to get hurt. However, if you’re using real people and weather balloons instead of party balloons, get out the science book, the calculator and the scale—you need to calibrate the lift force of the balloons against the weight of the person, the chair and the supplies destined upward.

4. Get in the lawn chair with your supplies. You’ll need to board before all the balloons are inflated, so you’ll need help from someone else.

5. Allow your chair and you to soar to the length of your tether. If by some fluke, your line breaks (or is untied), you’ll need all the supplies above. You’ll want a parachute, a GPS, a cell phone and a pellet gun to pop your way down.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be cavalier about trying this just because it sounds fun. The dangers of Walters’ silly episode have to be self-evident, but in case the obvious isn’t abundantly clear, be aware that the most common side-effect of an experiment gone awry would be death. In April of 2008, a well-suited, well-prepared Reverend Adelir Antonio de Carli floated off to his presumed death when he attempted the stunt from his native Brazil. Not only did he have better and more modern equipment than previous lawn-chair flyers, he was an experienced skydiver. (By the way, Walters landed safely after his brush with the power lines, but he didn’t see a happy ending to his life. He committed suicide in 1993.)