Editor's Note:  The following article, taken from Sohu.com, talks about a group of young men, who, inspired by a documentary and the Disney-Pixar movie "Up", decided to pursue their own dreams of flying through the air on a bunch of balloons. Despite initial difficulties with calculations, a lack of safety gear, a limited budget and some unruly winds, the group managed to get one of their crew quite high "up" indeed, flying at an altitude of 1,000 m for over 40 km. The story serves as an inspiration to the many out there who dared to dream, but weren't able to try. Also, don't try this at home!

In Disney-Pixar's Box Office smash "Up", an elderly man and his young sidekick float halfway across the world in a house tied to a slew of balloons. While most people would consider this movie premise to be a fantasy, pure and simple, a group of young men in Chongqing recently decided to turn this Disney dream into reality! After weeks of preparation and dealing with some minor hiccups along the way, they finally succeeded in flying a person 42 km across the land!

One documentary makes for one crazy idea

In mid July, a Chongqing user on the Tianya Chinese online forum posted a series of surreal pictures along with the following description: "These guys are crazy.  They used 11 hydrogen balloons to make a person fly over 40 km!"  The user also posted an edited video documenting the preparations and process of the balloon flight.

After going viral, a local reporter interviewed 29-year-old Liu Weihan, the leader of the "Up" group: "In early May, I was at home watching a documentary called Nothing is Impossible. The documentary showed a clip from the Disney-Pixar movie, "Up", and I thought to myself, ‘We could do this.'" Afterwards, Liu formed an interest group: "The members of the group were all long-time friends of mine, and we all have that ‘why not?' sort of mentality. If we say we'll do it, then we'll do it."

Preparing for the flight of a lifetime

"At first, we were hoping to get a house to ‘fly', but later thought that it's better to innovate than imitate," said Liu. Although Liu may not be the first person to fly by balloon, he is probably the first person in China to try it.

Liu's group agreed to limit their expenses to 5,000 RMB, and chose crossing the Jialing River as the ultimate goal of the flight. Once the base plan was laid out, the four guys split up to research and buy balloons online, find a gas canister manufacturer and purchase welding equipment and a hammock for 280 RMB. There were more mathematical preparations to take into account as well, such as calculating the weight of the equipment and pilot, as well as the direction and speed of the wind, so that the pilot would be able to float safely to the destination. 

Pei Hao, another member of the group, told reporters, "We ended up using six rubber balloons which were three meters in diameter and six rubber balloons which were two meters in diameter. We also used 11 tanks of hydrogen, which cost us a total of about 2,800 RMB. We could've used helium instead, which would have been safer, but it's also much more expensive (over 50,000 RMB), so due to financial restrictions, we opted to use hydrogen."

Inflation delays, dew problems, recalculating and traveling light

After seven days of preparation, the time came for the first test flight. According to Liu, they had originally planned to have the launch April 21 at 16:00 on the banks of the Jialing River, "But by the time we finished inflating the balloons, it was already 21:00.  We couldn't fly at night due to the obvious safety concerns, so we decided to camp out and light fireworks until daylight came again."  Meanwhile, 12 balloons sat in their car, waiting for the next day to come. 

The next morning the group was startled to find that dew had collected inside their balloons overnight, which might influence their original calculations. Even though Liu, 70 kg, was the original choice for the flight, once the dew was discovered, they had no choice but to have Sun Jian, 50 kg, serve as the test pilot.  But even then, 20 kg lighter than Liu, the balloons were unable to lift him.

The only way to make Sun any lighter was to have him fly without his belt, pants or even the safety equipment that they had bought especially for the test.  "I was only able to wear my sneakers, underwear, and a t-shirt. I also brought a knife for cutting the balloons when I decided to land, a cell phone to communicate with the others below and a camera to record the whole thing. But I couldn't spare the weight to being any safety equipment along," a proud Sun recollected. 

The wind controls your fate

Initially, the balloons (and Sun) rose into the air at what seemed to be a snails pace. But as sun dried up the dew, and the balloons began to catch the wind currents, his ascent quickened: "Our original goal was only to fly to the other side of the river.  But after the balloons rose into the air, there was simply no controlling them.  As I continued to climb, my cell phone started beeping out of control until suddenly the signal just went out.  My fate was out of my hands." According to the footage shot that day by Pei Hao, even though it may have seemed to Sun that his ascent was slow-going, the fast moving winds actually swept Sun up into the air so fast that he was but a speck in the sky within just two minutes!

Reflecting on that moment when he was suddenly swept high up into the sky by the strong winds, Sun told reporters that his first thoughts were about how his friends, then the cars, and then even the bridges started to become specs on a large landscape: "based on later calculations, we discovered that I'd been flying at an altitude of over 1000 meters."  And at those altitudes—higher than some mountains—the wind speeds were definitely different from the group's original calculations.

Sun's wife, who was 8 months pregnant, would be devastated if something were to happen to him. Those thoughts filled him with worry as he cut off three balloons to start his initial descent. Fortunately, his landing was a smooth one, and he was able to guide himself into a tree in the middle of a farmer's field: "The nearby farmers came to see what was going on; they looked at me as if I were a monster." Despite the dangerous winds and his impromptu crash landing, Sun couldn't be any happier with how the test flight went—according to the group's later calculations, he'd just flown 42 km!

Don't try this at home

Mike, an American exchange student studying in Chongqing, is also an avid fan of balloon-based flight. After watching the video of the group's flight online, he praised the group's boldness and creativityonline, as well as a few words of warning: "The group carefully calculated their flight and systematically went through trial runs, but hydrogen balloons aren't safe and are hard to control, once you're up in the air." He also pointed out the dangers inherent with using hydrogen in balloons, which has a tendency to explode, as well Sun's lack of safety gear on the flight.

A representative for the Chongqing Weather Bureau also told reporters that hydrogen balloons aren't allowed anywhere within the nine districts of Chongqing. Yang Xing, an employee of the Chongqing City Aviation Administration also added that using hydrogen-filled balloons to allow a human fly is extremely dangerous, not only to that individual but also to other aircrafts flying in the area at the same time. If the balloons were to interfere with a frequently used flight route, it could potentially put all of the passengers on that flight at risk as well. 

While this is an inspiring story of a group of friends who pursued their dream of flying like in the movie "Up"…don't try this at home.
 

Related links
Imitation leads to innovation
Can China Ever Compete with America's Unrestrained Creative Freedom?
Going West: China's New Media Revolution

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Keywords: balloon flight in Chongqing