1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,199
Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,760
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

3
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:12,600
Speaker 1: show that gives you a bird's eye view of history

4
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:17,320
Speaker 1: every day of the week. I'm Gabe Lucier, and today

5
00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,480
Speaker 1: we're looking at the story of Lawnchair Larry, an intrepid

6
00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,799
Speaker 1: balloonist who refused to let his lack of training or

7
00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:34,600
Speaker 1: a pilot's license keep him grounded. The day was July second,

8
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:40,840
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two. Amateur pilot Larry Walters launched himself skyward

9
00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: using a lawn chair and several dozen weather balloons. The

10
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,919
Speaker 1: thirty three year old Vietnam veteran and truck driver had

11
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 1: always dreamed of flying, but because of his poor eyesight,

12
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,920
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to join the Air Force as a

13
00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,600
Speaker 1: pilot or obtain a commercial license. Still, he was determined

14
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:03,200
Speaker 1: to fly somehow so in the summer of eighty two,

15
00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,040
Speaker 1: with the help of his long suffering girlfriend Carol, Walters

16
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,200
Speaker 1: built a homemade flying machine and took to the sky

17
00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: above San Pedro, California. Walter's aircraft, so to speak, was

18
00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,080
Speaker 1: an aluminum lawn chair from Sears, which he later described

19
00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:24,680
Speaker 1: as extremely comfortable. Sourcing the chair was as easy as

20
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:27,800
Speaker 1: you'd expect, but the heavy duty balloons that gave it

21
00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,199
Speaker 1: lift were a little tougher to acquire. Weather balloons aren't

22
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,319
Speaker 1: typically available to the public, so to get their hands

23
00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:39,120
Speaker 1: on some, Larry and his girlfriend forged a requisition slip

24
00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,880
Speaker 1: from his employer and pretended the balloons were to be

25
00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,160
Speaker 1: used in a commercial. The scheme worked perfectly, and after

26
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,240
Speaker 1: plunking down about four thousand dollars, Larry and Carol became

27
00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 1: the proud owners of some forty odd weather balloons. When

28
00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:59,120
Speaker 1: fully inflated, each balloon contained roughly thirty three cubic feet

29
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:03,280
Speaker 1: of helium and was about eight feet in diameter. That's

30
00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,400
Speaker 1: a total volume of about fifteen hundred cubic feet, more

31
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 1: than enough to get a few hundred pounds airborne. On

32
00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 1: the morning of the launch, Larry, Carol, and a few

33
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,960
Speaker 1: friends set to work inflating and attaching the balloons to

34
00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,360
Speaker 1: Larry's patio chair. Then they loaded up the rig, which

35
00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 1: Larry christened the inspiration Ie, with some basic equipment and supplies.

36
00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,680
Speaker 1: This included a parachute, a camera, a cbee radio, a

37
00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,960
Speaker 1: couple of sandwiches, and a few beers, as well as

38
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,400
Speaker 1: water jugs for ballast, and a pellet gun to pop

39
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:43,320
Speaker 1: the balloons and casey went too high. At eleven a

40
00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:47,560
Speaker 1: m on July second, nineteen eighty two, Larry Walters strapped

41
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 1: himself into his lawn chair and released the ties to

42
00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:54,120
Speaker 1: the anchors that kept him grounded. The plan was to

43
00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: ascend about thirty feet into the air, at which point

44
00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,560
Speaker 1: a tethering rope attached to a nearby jeep would prevent

45
00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:04,919
Speaker 1: the inspiration from rising any higher. Walters hoped to spend

46
00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:08,520
Speaker 1: a few hours floating lazily over the Mojave desert and

47
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,400
Speaker 1: then descend gently back to Earth by shooting out a

48
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 1: few balloons. Walters even thought of a failsafe measure in

49
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,240
Speaker 1: case he started descending too quickly. All he had to

50
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,359
Speaker 1: do was jettison the water jugs that he carried his ballast,

51
00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,079
Speaker 1: and the lawnchair would descend much more slowly. It was

52
00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:30,079
Speaker 1: a fool proof plan, or so he thought, But when

53
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,560
Speaker 1: the inspiration was set loose that morning, it shot into

54
00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,600
Speaker 1: the sky much faster than expected, clearing a distance of

55
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,880
Speaker 1: eight hundred feet per minute. The device quickly reached the

56
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:45,280
Speaker 1: limit of the tethering rope and snapped it. The flying

57
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,840
Speaker 1: lawn chair continued climbing and eventually reached a maximum altitude

58
00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:54,160
Speaker 1: of sixteen thousand feet, a full three miles off the ground.

59
00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,640
Speaker 1: So Walter's horror, the balloon began drifting into controlled airspace

60
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:03,640
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, where he was quickly spotted and reported by

61
00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:07,720
Speaker 1: several commercial airline pilots. One of them was said to

62
00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:12,240
Speaker 1: have radioed air traffic control saying quote, this is TWA

63
00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:16,040
Speaker 1: two thirty one level at sixteen thousand feet. We have

64
00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:18,720
Speaker 1: a man in a chair attached to balloons in our

65
00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:23,640
Speaker 1: ten o'clock position range five miles. Up to that point,

66
00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,480
Speaker 1: Walters had refrained from popping any balloons because he worried

67
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,440
Speaker 1: that he might become unbalanced and fall out of the chair,

68
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,800
Speaker 1: But after enduring forty five minutes of freezing temperatures and

69
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: low oxygen levels, he decided to take his chances. Mustering

70
00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 1: all his courage, Walters used his BB gun to pop

71
00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:47,040
Speaker 1: a few balloons, and, to his relief, the inspiration stayed steady.

72
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,159
Speaker 1: He was just about to shoot out a few more

73
00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,159
Speaker 1: when a sudden gust of wind rocked the chair and

74
00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,600
Speaker 1: sent his gun plunging overboard. Caught by the wind and

75
00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,760
Speaker 1: not sure what to do next. Walters can continued drifting

76
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,920
Speaker 1: toward Long Beach. He soon realized he was descending too quickly,

77
00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:07,960
Speaker 1: so he dumped his ballast and wound up drifting into

78
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:12,120
Speaker 1: some power lines. The collision caused a twenty minute blackout

79
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,800
Speaker 1: in Long Beach, and Walters had to be rescued by

80
00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:19,720
Speaker 1: the LAPD, at which point he was promptly arrested. By

81
00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,080
Speaker 1: the time he was back on the ground, a crowd

82
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:26,160
Speaker 1: of reporters and local residents had gathered to watch the scene.

83
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,640
Speaker 1: One reporter asked Walters why he had undertaken such a

84
00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 1: risky endeavor, when the handcuffed balloonist replied, matter of factly, quote,

85
00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,640
Speaker 1: A guy has to do something. He can't just sit

86
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:42,120
Speaker 1: around in his backyard all day. The press dubbed Walter's

87
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,360
Speaker 1: lawn chair Larry, and he spent the next several months

88
00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:48,920
Speaker 1: basking in his new found fame. He appeared on both

89
00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:51,479
Speaker 1: The David Letterman Show and The Late Show, and he

90
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:55,160
Speaker 1: spent a short while after touring as a motivational speaker

91
00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,720
Speaker 1: and encouraging others to pursue their dreams just as he had.

92
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,320
Speaker 1: Of course, not everyone was a fan of lawnchair Larry.

93
00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:08,520
Speaker 1: The Federal Aviation Administration charged him with violating controlled airspace,

94
00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:13,440
Speaker 1: flying without a pilot's license, and operating a non airworthy aircraft.

95
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,400
Speaker 1: He was fined four thousand dollars for the offenses, but

96
00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:21,880
Speaker 1: it was later reduced to fifteen hundred on appeal. Walter's

97
00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:27,560
Speaker 1: legendary flight inspired many other copycat balloonists, including Jonathan Trapp,

98
00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: who flew fifty miles in an unmodified desk chair. These

99
00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,400
Speaker 1: daredevil flights later gave rise to a new extreme sport

100
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:41,640
Speaker 1: known as cluster ballooning. Participants strapped themselves into a harness

101
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,599
Speaker 1: rather than a lawnchair, and then take to the skies

102
00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,960
Speaker 1: with a cluster of rubber helium filled balloons. As for

103
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,440
Speaker 1: the lawn chair that started at all the inspiration one,

104
00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,640
Speaker 1: it sad a rather unusual journey of its own. Before

105
00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,719
Speaker 1: Walters was hauled to the police station in nineteen eighty two,

106
00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,400
Speaker 1: he gifted his now famous lawn chair to Jerry Fleck,

107
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,520
Speaker 1: a kid from the Long Beach neighborhood in which Walters

108
00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:10,680
Speaker 1: had quote unquote landed. Fleck held on to the bizarre

109
00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,600
Speaker 1: memento for the next three decades before finally donating the

110
00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,560
Speaker 1: lawn chair to the National Air and Space Museum. It's

111
00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:23,000
Speaker 1: now on display at the museum's companion facility, the Stephen f.

112
00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:27,920
Speaker 1: Oodvar Hazy Center, near the Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

113
00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,200
Speaker 1: Larry Walters never got the chance to fly planes like

114
00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,800
Speaker 1: he wanted, but because of his reckless, daring and ingenuity,

115
00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:43,960
Speaker 1: he still earned a special place in aeronautical history. I'm gay,

116
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,160
Speaker 1: Blues Gay, and hopefully you now know a little more

117
00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:51,200
Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like

118
00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:53,240
Speaker 1: to keep up with the show, you can follow us

119
00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:58,360
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

120
00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,840
Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggest es Jans feel

121
00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:03,080
Speaker 1: free to send him my way by writing to this

122
00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:08,040
Speaker 1: day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias for

123
00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,040
Speaker 1: producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll

124
00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,200
Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in

125
00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:15,160
Speaker 1: History Class