In 2009, there was a movie called Up. It was about an old man who used thousands of balloons to lift his house up into the sky and fly to South America. It w as a fun and interesting movie, but it’s not a new idea.
Over the years, several people have tried to build their own homemade aircrafts using balloons. An American man from Oregon named Kent Couch tried it in 2001. He tied 105 large balloons to a big chair. Then he filled the balloons with helium, a gas that is lighter than air. To keep his chair from flying up too high, he had bags filled with water attached to the chair. These bags acted as weights. If he wanted to go up, he just let some water out of the bags. Mr. Couch also carried a small knife with him. If he wanted to go down, he just popped a balloon.
Couch took along a cell phone, a radio, and other equipment to help him fly. He also had a video camera to record the flight. Couch flew for nine hours in his homemade aircraft. At times, he reached heights of almost four thousand meters!
It was his goal to fly to the next state, Idaho. However, dangerous weather forced him to land quickly in a field.
He was all right, but the strong winds blew his aircraft away along with the camera. Mr. Couch was very disappointed because he thought that no one would believe him without seeing the video. However, one year later, the video camera and the other equipment were found by a farmer. They were about thirteen miles away from where Couch had landed.
So, what made Kent Couch do such a crazy thing? According to him, it was a dream from childhood. He always wondered what it would be like to sit on a cloud.
