Larry Walters did not climb into his aluminum lawn chair empty-handed. On July 2, 1982, he carried a parachute, a bottle of soda, a camera, a CB radio, a pellet gun, and the sort of confidence that makes neighbors come outside and stare. Forty-two helium weather balloons tugged above him. Thirteen plastic water jugs hung below him. Then the chair lifted from San Pedro and rose much faster than the plan allowed.[1]
In 1982, truck driver Larry Walters tied weather balloons to a lawn chair and flew over Los Angeles, reaching about 16,000 feet before coming down in Long Beach power lines.
Inspiration I was supposed to head toward the Mojave Desert. The Los Angeles Times later reported that Walters brought a portable radio to warn air traffic, and Snopes, tracing the newspaper accounts, says friends, neighbors, reporters, and camera crews watched from the ground when he rose from his girlfriend's yard.[2][3] The name made the contraption sound like an aircraft. The patio chair still looked like something pulled from a backyard.
A few minutes after takeoff, Walters radioed that he was crossing Los Angeles Harbor toward Long Beach. The chair kept climbing. By the time he reached roughly 16,000 feet, two commercial crews had reported the sight to air traffic controllers, according to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.[1] The museum now owns the chair, and the object is wonderfully plain for something that wandered into controlled airspace: plastic jugs, rope, metal frame, adhesive tape, paper, ink.
The BBC later traced the dream back to a would-be pilot with bad eyesight. Walters had wanted to fly, but the U.S. Air Force would not take him.[4] That helps explain the strange care inside the foolishness. He calculated lift, carried ballast, and brought the pellet gun so he could shoot balloons one by one on the way down. The trouble with a backyard aircraft is that the sky does not honor a backyard plan.
At altitude, Walters pulled out the pellet gun and began popping balloons. He later told the Times he was so amazed by the view that he did not take a single photograph.[2] He descended into Long Beach, where balloons and tethers caught power lines and blacked out part of the neighborhood for about twenty minutes. Firefighters and utility crews cut the power. Walters climbed down safely. The Federal Aviation Administration charged him with violating controlled airspace, flying without a balloon license, and operating a non-airworthy craft.[1]
On the ground, reporters asked the question every sensible person had. Why do this? Walters gave different answers over time, but the sharpest one came after he was back on the ground: "A man can't just sit around."[3] The line is funny because the chair was made for sitting. It lands a little harder because he had turned an ordinary patio object into public evidence of a private dream.
Years later, the neighborhood kid who received the chair helped send it to the Smithsonian. Walters had given it away after landing and regretted it, but Jerry Fleck's gift preserved the object with the water jugs still attached.[1] There it sits now, no longer rising, no longer drifting, still asking why a person would rather risk the open sky than stay politely seated.
