On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters (April 19, 1949 – October 6, 1993) made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the landing, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely. The flight attracted worldwide media attention and inspired a movie and numerous imitators.
Lawrence Richard "Larry" Walters had often dreamed of flying, but was unable to become a pilot in the United States Air Force because of his poor eyesight. Instead, he became a truck driver.[2] He first thought of using weather balloons to fly at age 13, after seeing them hanging from the ceiling of a military surplus store.
In 1982, he decided to try his flying idea. His intention was to float over the Mojave Desert and then use a pellet gun to burst some of the balloons in order to land.[3]
In mid-1982, Walters and his girlfriend at the time, Carol Van Deusen, purchased 45 eight-foot (2.4 m) weather balloons and obtained helium tanks from California Toy Time Balloons. They used a forged requisition from his employer, FilmFair Studios, saying the balloons were for a television commercial.
On July 2, 1982, Walters attached 43 of the balloons[3] to his lawn chair, filled them with helium, put on a parachute, and strapped himself into the chair in the backyard of a home at 1633 West 7th Street in San Pedro. He took his pellet gun, a CB radio, sandwiches, beer, and a camera.[4] When the cord that tied his lawn chair to his Jeep broke prematurely, before a planned delay to notify authorities, Walters's lawn chair rose rapidly to a height of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m) and was spotted from two commercial airliners.[3] He slowly drifted over Long Beach and crossed the primary approach corridor of Long Beach Airport.
He was in contact with REACT, a citizens band radio monitoring organization, who recorded their conversation:
After 45 minutes in the sky, Walters shot several balloons, taking care not to unbalance the load. He then accidentally dropped his pellet gun overboard. He descended slowly, until the balloons' dangling cables got caught in a power line at 423 E 44th Way in Long Beach. The power line broke, causing a 20-minute electricity blackout. He landed unharmed on the ground.[5]
Walters was immediately arrested by waiting members of the Long Beach Police Department. Regional safety inspector Neal Savoy was reported to have said, "We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which 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."[6] Walters initially was fined $4,000 for violations under U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations, including operating an aircraft within an airport traffic area "without establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control tower." Walters appealed, and the fine was reduced to $1,500.[7] A charge of operating a "civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate" was dropped, as it was not applicable to his class of aircraft.
Just after landing, Walters spoke to the press, saying:[8][9]
It was something I had to do. I had this dream for twenty years, and if I hadn't done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm.
The aircraft was dubbed Inspiration I. Lawn Chair Larry was awarded the title of "At-Risk Survivor" in the 1993 Darwin Awards.
Ten days after his flight, Walters appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.[3] He was briefly in demand as a motivational speaker, and quit his job as a truck driver. He was featured in a Timex print ad in the early 1990s,[10] but never made much money from his fame.[11]
The lawn chair used in the flight was reportedly given to an admiring boy named Jerry, though Walters regretted doing so when the Smithsonian Institution asked him to donate it to its museum.[12] Twenty years later, Jerry sent an email to Mark Barry, a pilot who had documented Walters's story and dedicated a website to it, and identified himself.[13] The chair was still sitting in his garage, attached to some of the original tethers and water jugs used as ballast.[12] The chair was placed on loan to the San Diego Air and Space Museum, where it was exhibited in 2014.[14] It was later donated to the Smithsonian and is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.[15]
The song "Walters" by the American band Pinback from their 2007 album Autumn of the Seraphs is about the event and his life after it.
Later in his life, Walters hiked the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the United States Forest Service. He later broke up with his girlfriend of 15 years and could only find work sporadically as a security guard.[16] On October 6, 1993, at the age of 44, Walters died by suicide after shooting himself in the heart in Angeles National Forest.[16]
In 1937, Al Mingalone, an American photographer for Paramount News previously used 32 weather balloons for a feature photography assignment at Old Orchard Beach in Maine. While he hung suspended from the balloons by a parachute harness in order to take aerial film footage, Mingalone's mooring rope broke and he was lifted approximately 700 feet (210 m) into the air. A clergyman, Father James J. Mullen, spotted the incident, and after a chase of some 13 miles (21 km), used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot out two of the balloons, thus allowing the photographer to return safely to the ground.[1]
Walters's flight spawned imitators, and allegedly inspired the extreme sport of cluster ballooning.
