Up and away! Briton soars to 8,000f t . . . on a camp chair tied to 100 balloons
IT MAY look like a scene from a children’s adventure film or a bizarre dream.
But dangling on a cheap camping chair and suspended by 100 heliumfilled balloons, this is a real-life adventurer.
Tom Morgan, 38, drifted nearly 16miles through the skies over South Africa and reached 8,000ft after spending two days filling the balloons with gas.
He had previously attempted the stunt three times in Botswana before finally succeeding in good weather north of Johannesburg using the last of his helium supply.
The father-of-two, from Bristol, described the flight as ‘peaceful and terrifying in equal measure’. He said: ‘The problem was finding good weather and it was difficult to protect the balloons as they kept bursting. It was completely silent and the view was amazing – the whole thing was magical but I don’t think it will be a commercial success.’
The balloons had been filled with helium in a warehouse and stored overnight before being tied together and weighed down with canisters of the gas.
The two-and-a-half-hour flight took Mr Morgan close to Johannesburg airport. He added: ‘I didn’t know what height the balloons would burst, or what the sun would do to them. At 8,000ft they started accelerating into the flight path.’ To get down, he had to ‘keep my cool and start gradually cutting the balloons’.
Mr Morgan had to contend with what atmospheric pressure does to balloons. At sea level, the weight of air in the atmosphere pushes on the balloons. However, at higher altitudes the air is thinner and therefore less able to push down on the balloons which causes them to expand and eventually burst.
Balloons also swell more at higher temperatures as the helium molecules inside expand, meaning that – combined with the lower air pressures – heat can contribute to balloons bursting.
Mr Morgan and his wife Jenny, 37, run an adventure company called The Adventurists which organises trips to races and summits as well as non-competitive adventures. He admitted his wife was ‘not overly delighted with my plan’.
But he added: ‘I came here to see if we could organise the world’s most ridiculous air race and after that flight I’m more convinced than ever that we can.’