If you were a pilot in the early 1980s, you likely know the story of Larry Walters, aka “Lawn Chair Larry,” the man who tied over 40 weather balloons to a lawn chair and quickly gained ATC and FAA attention by ascending into controlled airspace over Los Angeles at 16,000 feet. Larry, a truck driver out of California, always had a dream to fly. He spent his childhood fantasizing about planes and, as soon as he was of age, enlisted in the military to jumpstart his career as a pilot. To his dismay, the military informed him that his eyesight was too poor to serve behind aircraft controls and, instead, he spent his days in service as a cook in Vietnam. As most pilots can attest, the itch to fly isn’t one that just goes away—not until it’s been properly scratched. Larry’s yearning was so strong that, according to him, if he had never accomplished flight, he would have certainly “ended up in the funny farm.”
At 11 a.m. on July 2, 1982, he would take flight from the backyard of his girlfriend’s home in San Pedro, California, by tying 42 8-foot helium-filled weather balloons, tiered into four layers, to a Sears-purchased aluminum lawn chair angled back at a 45-degree angle, using gallon jugs of water as ballast. Larry called his self-made aircraft “Inspiration I” and stocked it with sandwiches, cold beer, a CB radio, altimeter, camera and a pellet gun to shoot out balloons for controlled descent. Having learned to skydive as a precaution, he donned a parachute and climbed aboard his chair from a rooftop. Larry wanted to fly and, boy, did Larry fly! Instead of lazily floating off the ground and beginning his drift east at a low altitude, his tethering lines prematurely snapped, and he quickly rocketed up to a whopping 16,000 feet.
When asked what his difficulty was, Larry responded, “The difficulty is, ah, this was an unauthorized balloon launch, and, uh, I know I’m in a federal airspace…” After about 45 minutes in the air, he finally found the courage to shoot out some of the balloons, starting with those in the outer ring, but accidentally dropped his gun in the process. He poured out ballast to control the descent from there.
Instead of making a calm descent into the desert, “Inspiration I” ended its hour-and-a-half flight tangled up in power lines at 432 45th St. in Long Beach, resulting in a 20-minute electricity blackout in the area. Larry was arrested and the FAA, unable to revoke the pilot license of a man who didn’t even have one, instead slapped him with four charges and a $4,000 fine. The agency eventually conceded on one of the charges—as it turns out, a lawn chair does not, in fact, require an airworthiness certificate—and reduced the fine to $1,500.
Reflexive Analysis
Lawn chair Larry’s story resembles that of the Wright brothers in that as a child he had seen flight and become captivated by it. Larry also eventually built his own flying contraption. I selected this story to discuss as it shows a person taking to the skies and seizing their freedom, as well as solving design problems and using the materials they have access to. Larry’s story is inspirational in this way and embodies some of the reckless spirit of the Wright brothers’ experiments.
Larry’s lawn chair also inspires a sense of wonder in me. There is a sort of surreal imagery that comes with the air traffic controllers describing him on the radio. It simply sounds untrue that a man in a lawn chair just flew by. Creating a sense of wonder or surrealness is what captured the Wright brothers’ attention at a young age and inspired their story. The puddle jumper toy itself also operates on this basis. By taking this into consideration I may be able to utilize this sort of “unreal” feeling to interest users.
Sources
Chair, Lawn, Larry Walters. Homepage. (n.d.). https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/chair-lawn-larry-walters/nasm_A20181388000
Kocis, D., Pilot, P. &, Goyer, I., Pilot, P. and, & King, J. (2019, July 9). Mysteries of flight: Lawn chair Larry. Plane & Pilot Magazine. https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/lawn-chair-larry/
