How many times did you want to spit on everything and do something incredible, what dreamed of from childhood? This is the story of Larry Walters, who became the only person who received the "Darwin Prize" during life. He took off five kilometers on a garden chair with balloons and helium.
Larry Walters always wanted to fly, he even tried to enter the United States Air Force, but his vision was brought. The guy was nearby, and it was determined in the infantry. After the war in Vietnam, he settled a truck driver. Delivery shipped in the country and dreamed that someday he would still fly. And one day, Larry saw huge balls for meteo floors in the Army Store. This moment became a swivel in his fate. Larry bought several dozen balls, cylinders with helium and began to build their fleet. To aviation science, its construction, of course, did not have anything. All in sensations, enthusiasm. He took an aluminum garden chair and attached to it 42 balls filled with helium. According to the plan, the chair with the pilot was to climb the hundred and other meters above the ground and fly on the city. Walters prepared for the flight thoroughly. Tied to the chair plastic bottles with water as ballast, cooked sandwiches and refreshments on the road. Larry also took a pneumatic gun with him to shoot down the balls and thus decline. In general, everything thought over. The moment "X" was scheduled for July 2, 1982. Larry sat down in the aerosset, the full determination to fulfill the dream of his childhood. The moment of take-off shot on the chamber of the girlfriend Larry Walters, who cut the safety ropes, the anchor held the chair near the earth. From the very beginning something went wrong. Apparently the truck driver somewhere was mistaken in the calculations, and instead of a smooth takeoff, the chair sharply and uncontrollably began to go up. Larry kept a connection with his girlfriend on a portable radio. He already realized that the adventure became more interesting, but he could not imagine how much.The chair rose and rose until the clouds reached. The height of the flight was about 4800 meters! Recall that at such a height is very cold and little oxygen. I must say that Larry was confused and, moreover, lost glasses when taken. For Clarigar, this is a separate stress. He did not dare to shoot on the balls, fearing that the chair would lean, and he would just fall. So, drift in airspace, Larry Walters flew into the landing corridor of the Los Angeles airport. What was the surprise of the Delta Airlines pilot, who first noticed on the man's window in the garden chair at an altitude of five thousand meters. The pilot passed the airport dispatcher that an unidentified air chair is located in the aviation corridor. It's terribly freezing, but not falling in spirit, Larry decided that it was hardly worse and began to shoot balls. Moreover, it began to demolish toward the ocean. Fortunately, the chair did not turn over, but the rifle after a few shots fell out of the stuffed hands. It was lucky that the aircraft still went to the landing, although not so fast. The news of the amateur pilot came to rescue services that have already met Larry on Earth. It is not known how hard landing would have passed if the aircraft would not get closed with ropes for high-voltage wires. The drop is softened, but caused a short circuit, as a result of which the whole area of Los Angeles remained without light. In total, Larry spent around two hours in the air. By landing, the novice aeronauticer arrested the police. He upheat the airport dispatchers, rescuers, and himself was pretty frightened. However, in response to the question of a journalist, why he did it all, Larry said: "A person cannot just sit so much." He later admitted that he dreamed of such a flight for the last twenty years, and if he had not done this, it would just be crazy.The court of Los Angeles was discharged Walters a fine of $ 1600. He was accused of fleets on a unlicensed aircraft, as well as the fact that he created a danger to aircraft near the airport. In the same year, Larry Walters received the Darwin Prize in the "surviving" nomination. This premium is given to those who committed some terribly stupid act and this most brought themselves from the chain of evolution, while not leaving the descendants. Usually this premium is awarded posthumously. After the flight, Larry has not returned to her old life. He threw the work by the driver and began to conduct seminars on how a simple person could change his life. At the end of the eighties, Walters recorded a volunteer to the US National Forest Service and spent several years in silence among centuries-old trees. In one of the last interviews, The Time Larry newspaper said he loves solitude and gets great pleasure from communicating with nature. In 1993, an incorrigible romantic and dreamer Larry Walters shot himself in the forest near Los Angeles.
