Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:44:02 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Lawn Chair Larry
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

ronkean at juno.com wrote:

> Years ago, I bought one surplus rubber weather balloon by mail order.  It
> may well have been the same nominal size as the ones in the story.  It
> broke when I blew it up with air to test it, perhaps because the rubber
> had deteriorated by being stored too long.

A couple of months ago, I caught one of those "we do stupid things so
you don't have to" TV shows where they attempted to recreate "Lawn Chair
Larry's" flight.  They were able to do it (tethered, max height about 70
feet), including shooting out balloons to land.

Biggest problem they had was that the surplus weather baloons had
deteriorated to the point where they nearly blew their helium budget
when too many of the half-filled balloons broke.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."