Engineers Build a Balloon-House, Proving Up! (Sort of) Totally Possible

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Scott Bullock	1 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 18:48
	*Engineers Build a Balloon-House, Proving Up!* (Sort of) Totally Possible The people at National Geographic know that the best way to prove a balloon-powered flying house is possible is to get a bunch of balloons and build one yourself.** The National Geographic Channel, along with a team of engineers and balloon pilots, successfully managed to launch a 16' x 16' x 18' house 10,000 feet in the air on Saturday, where the 10 story tall, 300 balloon construct flew for over an hour. The experiment, modeled on the floating house from Pixar's movie Up! was carried out and filmed for an upcoming show on the National Geographic Channel, entitled How Hard Can It Be? The answer, for a real house, turned out to be "nearly impossible." So instead of attempting to float a real, full-sized and completely furnished home, the team decided to build their own bare-bones house that might actually be capable of flying. The construction took more than a full day of working, even with volunteers, but the balloon-house was finally ready by dawn, when it was finally launched, setting the world record for largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted in the process. It is an impressive feat, and I'm sure it will make great TV, but I think I know what question you all are asking right now, because I'm asking it too: How the hell did they get it down? Source: MyModernMet via IWatchStuff Permalink

Aurora219	2 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 18:54
	Scott Bullock: It is an impressive feat, and I'm sure it will make great TV, but I think I know what question you all are asking right now, because I'm asking it too: How the hell did they get it down? Rifle and lots of bullets. I WANT A GO!

Veldie	3 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 18:55
	So am I the only one who would love to live in a flying home?

Dfskelleton	4 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 19:02
	Dude, I did this once in Garry's Mod. It was so fun, me in my flying house.

Booze Zombie	5 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 19:12
	How did they get it down? Grappling guns, obviously.

dex-dex	6 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 19:13
	I had heard that they did this but had little belief that it was true. I'm speechless.

HankMan	7 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 19:18
	I heard some French guy did this with a hot air balloon back in the 1800s. The house he flew was made of wax though so it doesn't really count. OT: Awesome, I wanna go see Kevin!

Cpu46	8 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 19:53
	Aurora219: Scott Bullock: It is an impressive feat, and I'm sure it will make great TV, but I think I know what question you all are asking right now, because I'm asking it too: How the hell did they get it down? Rifle and lots of bullets. I WANT A GO! We have to go in order, it goes Me then Simmons then me, you, Simmons, me, me, you, me, Simmons, me, me, me! It makes perfect sense! /Redvsblue reference. OT: Honestly I wish I could have watched that, it sounds like fun. EDIT: Move over Inglip, Lord Sarnan has come!

Denamic	9 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:14
	My guess is with BB guns. That'd be awesome.

Kwatsu	10 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:21
	They didn't. It will fly over us forever as a silent guardian, descending whenever someone really needs a house.

omicron1	11 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:23
	I wonder about the mass of helium used by this house's lift as compared to the Up house - did they use a similar amount? More? Less?

duchaked	12 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:26
	how DID that get it down... wasn't there a guy in it? (thought I saw him in it in another picture)

aashell13	13 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:30
	I'm waiting for someone to build the Winnebago Zeppelin, but without the hydrogen lifting gas and rocket-fuel based paint...

Henrik Moeller	14 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:34
	You don't have to shoot it down, as balloons rise to thinner air the internal pressure is greater than the external, expanding the balloon until it bursts or the molecules are so far apart that air is released between them.

Theron Julius	15 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:35
	How did they get it down? Well if Dead Space has taught me anything, engineers have a plethora of effective construction and mining tools that could take down something as measly as a balloon

ethaninja	16 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 20:44
	Booze Zombie: How did they get it down? Grappling guns, obviously. Nooo, Physics Gun of course ;)

Mr.Mattress	17 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 21:53
	Henrik Moeller: You don't have to shoot it down, as balloons rise to thinner air the internal pressure is greater than the external, expanding the balloon until it bursts or the molecules are so far apart that air is released between them. But due to wind currents and wind patterns, this would be extremely dangerous when the house lands... OT: That looks awesome! I want a flying house!!

Dooly95	18 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 22:43
	Perhaps they just left it. And found it landed somewhere far away. Like New York.

emeraldrafael	19 POSTED: 7 Mar 2011 22:54
	It went over the rainbow. This is obviously advertisement for the wizard of oz 2.

Evilsanta	20 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 01:24
	Awesome! Though how did they get it down? I wouldn't want to be close to site as the ballons pop.

thiosk	21 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 01:40
	Scott Bullock: How the hell did they get it down? It would have been wonderful to see a military jet blast it out of the air. FOX TWO sphwoosh!

RA92	22 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 03:30
	Scott Bullock: It is an impressive feat, and I'm sure it will make great TV, but I think I know what question you all are asking right now, because I'm asking it too: How the hell did they get it down? Don't worry, they are working on that.

plsdeleteacc15	23 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 05:20
	Woot! I want to have an UP! house now. :P

Scarim Coral	24 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 05:20
	Ha! Take that to those scientist people who thought it was impossible to recreate it? Who os laughing now?

Phishfood	25 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 06:09
	Reminds me of Lawn Chair Larry http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html

LadyRhian	26 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 06:23
	How did they lure an old guy, a boy scout and a talking dog into the house? ;)

therandombear	27 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 07:39
	Someone should make a flying circus next..:3 I made a funny

Staskala	28 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 10:56
	Scott Bullock: How the hell did they get it down? I heard 99 super-high-tech jet fighters shot them down.

Erana	29 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 11:18
	Cpu46: Aurora219: Scott Bullock: It is an impressive feat, and I'm sure it will make great TV, but I think I know what question you all are asking right now, because I'm asking it too: How the hell did they get it down? Rifle and lots of bullets. I WANT A GO! We have to go in order, it goes Me then Simmons then me, you, Simmons, me, me, you, me, Simmons, me, me, me! It makes perfect sense! /Redvsblue reference. OT: Honestly I wish I could have watched that, it sounds like fun. EDIT: Move over Inglip, Lord Sarnan has come! I googled "Sarnan" and was delivered to some home-made old-looking site boasting, "Wrestling tapes." I was afraid to look further, because nothing good could come out of sketchy people on the internet selling tapes. Unless it was secretly a No More Heroes fan website, but even then, I don't want to watch the kinds of videos Travis watches! D:

Celtic_Kerr	30 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 11:49
	Scott Bullock: How the hell did they get it down? Who's up for some archery!?

Celtic_Kerr	31 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 11:50
	Erana: Cpu46: Aurora219: Rifle and lots of bullets. I WANT A GO! We have to go in order, it goes Me then Simmons then me, you, Simmons, me, me, you, me, Simmons, me, me, me! It makes perfect sense! /Redvsblue reference. OT: Honestly I wish I could have watched that, it sounds like fun. EDIT: Move over Inglip, Lord Sarnan has come! I googled "Sarnan" and was delivered to some home-made old-looking site boasting, "Wrestling tapes." I was afraid to look further, because nothing good could come out of sketchy people on the internet selling tapes. Unless it was secretly a No More Heroes fan website, but even then, I don't want to watch the kinds of videos Travis watches! D: Your Red VS Blue reference made my day, btw

SsilverR	32 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 12:12
	wanna know how I'd get it down?? .... air rifle XD

Erana	33 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 12:33
	Celtic_Kerr: Erana: Cpu46: We have to go in order, it goes Me then Simmons then me, you, Simmons, me, me, you, me, Simmons, me, me, me! It makes perfect sense! /Redvsblue reference. OT: Honestly I wish I could have watched that, it sounds like fun. EDIT: Move over Inglip, Lord Sarnan has come! I googled "Sarnan" and was delivered to some home-made old-looking site boasting, "Wrestling tapes." I was afraid to look further, because nothing good could come out of sketchy people on the internet selling tapes. Unless it was secretly a No More Heroes fan website, but even then, I don't want to watch the kinds of videos Travis watches! D: Your Red VS Blue reference made my day, btw Why is it that I keep inadvertently making references to shows I don't watch?

Celtic_Kerr	34 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 12:41
	Erana: Celtic_Kerr: Erana: I googled "Sarnan" and was delivered to some home-made old-looking site boasting, "Wrestling tapes." I was afraid to look further, because nothing good could come out of sketchy people on the internet selling tapes. Unless it was secretly a No More Heroes fan website, but even then, I don't want to watch the kinds of videos Travis watches! D: Your Red VS Blue reference made my day, btw Why is it that I keep inadvertently making references to shows I don't watch? it's cause you're awesome, now stop questioning it. Your have great powers. FORGE YOUR DESTINY!

ssgt splatter	35 POSTED: 8 Mar 2011 13:07
	I've been ninja'd by like 5 people already but I'll say it anyway...they shot the balloons with a rifle until it started to fall back to earth.


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