Man Trying To Fly Across the Atlantic On Helium Balloons

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Man Trying To Fly Across the Atlantic On Helium Balloons

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 12, 2013 @08:16PM from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.

coondoggie writes "f you've ever wondered if you could fly just by holding onto a bunch of helium balloons over your head, well then you might understand where Accenture IT Technical Projects Manager Jonathan Trappe is coming from. Trappe today set out today from Caribou, Maine to cross 2,500 miles of Atlantic Ocean using 370 helium balloons slung under a small gondola. According to a DailyMail.com story, Trappe is relying on state-of-the-art weather data from the meteorologist who advised Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking skydive from the stratosphere last year. The latest weather reports before the launch suggested winds would take Trappe to western Europe, though the exact destination would be hard to predict." Update: 09/13 14:08 GMT by S : The attempt is already over and unsuccessful. Trappe landed safely in Newfoundland, saying he was having trouble controlling the balloons.

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On helium balloons? by chrism238 · 2013-09-12 20:28 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm sceptical; I think you could do it on LSD, but helium would just give you that floating feeling.
1. Re:On helium balloons? by Connie_Lingus · 2013-09-13 00:54 · Score: 1
  
  ...and you would talk *really* oddly
  
  --
  never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
Under a small gondola? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 20:41 · Score: 1

Think the fault of TFA, but surely it's a small gondola slung under 370 helium balloons, not 370 helium balloons under a small gondola?
Could prove fatal to the success of the attempt otherwise...
Slung UNDER? by macraig · 2013-09-12 20:43 · Score: 4, Funny

Wait, the balloons are slung UNDER the gondola? Is this story from another multiverse where the rules ain't the same.
In any case, with 370 dangling sacks that's a really well slung dude.
1. Re:Slung UNDER? by Xest · 2013-09-12 23:26 · Score: 1
  
  I think someone got the ballasts hanging underneath confused with the BIG FUCK OFF BUNCH OF BRIGHTLY COLOURED BALLOONS FLOATING ABOVE.
  Apparently some people are actually that retarded.
You can follow his trip on Facebook by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 20:43 · Score: 4, Insightful

I can't though, because like any responsible human being, I block Facebook at the DNS level. FFS people, if you make Facebook the new web, I give up all faith I had left in humanity.
1. Re:You can follow his trip on Facebook by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 22:14 · Score: 1
  
  Me blocking Facebook isn't a protest. It is to stop every other website sending pings to them with their stupid "Like" Buttons.
2. Re:You can follow his trip on Facebook by badboy_tw2002 · 2013-09-13 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm, I was expecting to see "sheeple" in there somewhere. Disappointed for sure...
3. Re:You can follow his trip on Facebook by umafuckit · 2013-09-13 07:13 · Score: 1
  
  I can't though, because like any responsible human being, I block Facebook at the DNS level. FFS people, if you make Facebook the new web, I give up all faith I had left in humanity.
  Exactly. Facebook is like an evil, privately-controlled, sub-internet.
  
  --
  soylentnews.org
He's doing it wrong by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 20:44 · Score: 1

This guy obviously doesn't know how these things work. He's supposed to attach the balloons to a house, and go to South America...
Just sayin'
1. Re: He's doing it wrong by bemymonkey · 2013-09-12 21:22 · Score: 1
  
  This. It's been done, and with much more style too.
2. Re:He's doing it wrong by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-13 00:15 · Score: 1
  
  He already did that.
3. Re:He's doing it wrong by worf_mo · 2013-09-13 00:41 · Score: 1
  
  Some people prefer a lawn chair.
waste of helium. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 20:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

really.
1. Re:waste of helium. by Goaway · 2013-09-12 23:05 · Score: 1
  
  Balloons don't waste helium, that's largely a misunderstanding. Balloon helium is recycled and impure and not good for anything but filling balloons.
2. Re:waste of helium. by methano · 2013-09-13 00:04 · Score: 1
  
  Hmmm! OK, I'll bite. I think you're making this up and don't really have a clue about recycled helium. I could be wrong but that's what I think.
3. Re:waste of helium. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-13 00:55 · Score: 1
  
  Balloons don't waste helium, that's largely a misunderstanding. Balloon helium is recycled and impure and not good for anything but filling balloons.
  Not economically feasible to use for anything but filling balloons, given current prices? Sure. But if you're denying we could (and, given high enough helium prices, would) purify and liquefy the recycled helium, then you just don't know what you're talking about.
4. Re:waste of helium. by rossdee · 2013-09-13 01:25 · Score: 1
  
  where can you take your old balloons to recycle the Helium ?
5. Re:waste of helium. by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  you might be interested to know that the "helium shortage" nonsense you've been reading is a bunch of bullshit. vast amounts still remain mixed with natural gas underground, and even if wastefully vented just stays in the atmosphere where it can be recovered by other means. there is no shortage of helium and its impossible to dispose of.
6. Re:waste of helium. by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  that would be foolish, more economical with that kind of equipment to reclaim it from liquified atmosphere. which is why there will never be a "helium shortage" on planet earth for hundreds of millions of years.
7. Re:waste of helium. by fizzup · 2013-09-13 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  ...even if wastefully vented just stays in the atmosphere where it can be recovered by other means.
  Nope. Helium and hydrogen get fast enough at altitude to achieve escape velocity. Due to atmospheric escape, the concentration of helium in the atmosphere is relatively constant at about 5 ppm. That is a ridiculously low concentration. It is absolutely not economic to extract helium from the atmosphere. Liquid helium is less expensive than scotch, and you wouldn't try to extract a cask after it was poured into a swimming pool.
8. Re:waste of helium. by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 08:57 · Score: 2
  
  sure it escapes but there is not a net loss, there is gain. 50 grams of helium leave while 67 grams are added to the atmosphere every second ,the concentration is slowly going up. but even with no replenishment the 3.7 billion tons of helium in the atmosphere would take a very long time to drop to 10% of its current value, tens of millions of years (rate would drop as concentration lowers)
  As far as extraction, just pointing out the helium is not going away so as last resort could be reclaimed though hugely expensive energy-wise.
There's an award for that by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 20:46 · Score: 4, Informative

I hope he does better than this guy.
1. Re:There's an award for that by daniel.garcia.romero · 2013-09-12 21:38 · Score: 2
  
  Here we go again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhY2kzlAFQ
Spoiler alert by g4sy · 2013-09-12 20:46 · Score: 1

He landed in Newfoundland. I hope he finds The Only Road. Well it looks like he's not too far from Corner Brook. A couple days hike maybe.

--
somewhere, on a Big Red Sign:
if(color==blue){speed--;}
Difference? by zAPPzAPP · 2013-09-12 21:03 · Score: 1

So there is really such a big difference between one big balloon and lots of small balloons containing the same volume of helium?
Because otherwise I'd say this has been done before.
1. Re:Difference? by somersault · 2013-09-12 21:10 · Score: 1
  
  I can't find any articles on Google about previous helium attempts, because all of the results are about this guy. Who's done it with helium before?
  
  --
  which is totally what she said
2. Re:Difference? by metamarmoset · 2013-09-12 21:10 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly my thoughts. (transatlantic in 1944)
3. Re:Difference? by flayzernax · 2013-09-12 21:11 · Score: 1
  
  perhaps with hydrogen...
4. Re:Difference? by Bob_Who · 2013-09-12 21:25 · Score: 1
  
  ...or Nitrous Oxide..
5. Re:Difference? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2013-09-12 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  So there is really such a big difference between one big balloon and lots of small balloons containing the same volume of helium?
  The former takes just one BB gun pellet to bring down.
  
  --
  "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
6. Re:Difference? by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 09:25 · Score: 1
  
  now that's a funny question, only because the answer is long distance trips with helium were done over half a century ago and it was boring and common long before most slashdotters were born. the craft usually had mulitple chambers so not a single "balloon". So there is indeed nothing new here,
7. Re:Difference? by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 09:30 · Score: 1
  
  not very quickly, the pressure is a couple percent over atmospheric. it gets even more interesting with airships with their multiple chambers, an airship 600 tested by UK DERA took *several hundred* rounds of automatic gunfire and still floated for a couple hours.
8. Re:Difference? by flayzernax · 2013-09-13 15:36 · Score: 1
  
  Thats really neat =) I never would have thought to ask that question, but the answer is pretty cool and informative. Would love to see more airships. I always wanted one for personal transportation. I figure it would be a pretty feasible and safe mass transit system, fuck trains.
  alas.... the human race... omg
Man Trying to Get Arrested by bistromath007 · 2013-09-12 21:26 · Score: 1

fix'd
1. Re:Man Trying to Get Arrested by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 22:11 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  It's a licensed aircraft.
  N878UP
  See, it is certified airworthy;
  http://www.clusterballoon.com/UP/assets/UP_N878UP_AirworthinessCertificate.html
  http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N878UP.html
2. Re:Man Trying to Get Arrested by Muad'Dave · 2013-09-13 01:35 · Score: 2
  
  As such, you can track it at http://www.flightradar24.com/ - just search for it.
  
  --
  Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Yeah, nice move Accenture... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2013-09-12 21:26 · Score: 3, Insightful

So this guys is wasting one of humankind's most precious resource on a useless stunt to promote his company. That's real slick, that.
Note to self: never do business with Accenture.

--
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
1. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by Goaway · 2013-09-12 23:08 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  If you believe a word the Daily Mail says, you're a fool.
  http://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2012/dec/11/should-we-ban-helium-balloons
2. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by turp182 · 2013-09-13 00:24 · Score: 1
  
  I'm more worried about oil to be honest. We get a lot of helium from natural gas production (typically about 1% of production is helium), which the US has been seeing a lot of these days.
  Comparing one person flying across an ocean using party balloons to the 10s of millions of people driving to work every day is a non-starter. Oil is more precious to our society than helium, yet most of us waste it without a second thought (I drive to maximize MPG, but I don't cut down on driving).
  MRI machines represent the largest use of helium, about 28% (weather and party balloons, 7%). If the Dr. can't get gasoline to drive to work to use the MRI machine then it really doesn't matter.
  Usage Link: http://articles.mcall.com/2010-12-21/opinion/mc-helium-explaint-20101221_1_helium-balloons-natural-gas
  
  --
  BlameBillCosby.com
3. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by Megane · 2013-09-13 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe he told them he was going to use it to find their missing maple syrup.
  
  --
  #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
4. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by slashmydots · 2013-09-13 01:25 · Score: 1
  
  Obviously you've never had to deal with the TSA.
5. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by Deadstick · 2013-09-13 01:38 · Score: 1
  
  Well, if car analogies don't work and we have to resort to oceanic analogies, you could compare MRI scanners to the Indian Ocean, industrial uses to the Pacific, and sports/entertainment usage to Chesapeake Bay...
6. Re:Yeah, nice move Accenture... by tompaulco · 2013-09-13 04:10 · Score: 1
  
  So this guys is wasting one of humankind's most precious resource on a useless stunt to promote his company. That's real slick, that.
  Note to self: never do business with Accenture.
  There's plenty more helium in our very own solar system. Just ask that big yellow thingy in the sky for some.
  
  --
  If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I work in consulting... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 21:33 · Score: 1

From linked article:
"And, on the Accenture website, Trappe details strapping into his office chair, tying up 55 helium balloons and fling over the North Carolina countryside - at about 15,000 feet."
So now you know why they are so expensive and what exactly they do while "working" for you.
1. Re:I work in consulting... by Xiaran · 2013-09-12 23:34 · Score: 2
  
  Hey anything that results in the injury or death of an Accenture is OK by me.
Obligatory xkcd by paavo512 · 2013-09-12 23:25 · Score: 2

Obligatory xkcd (from three days ago!!!): http://what-if.xkcd.com/62/
Scary ride by The+Cornishman · 2013-09-12 23:47 · Score: 1

I took the waypoint info from his tracking map and stuffed it into a spreadsheet. Synthesizing the vertical speed indications, it seems Mr Trappe may have had problems controlling his altitude: the maximum descent rate was over 600 fpm when approaching the New Brunswick coast, during a descent from 19,835 ft to just 968 ft in fifty minutes. Having bobbed back up to over 15,000 ft he again descended over the sea, this time to just 314 ft above sea level, with the VSI reading -220 fpm over the preceding ten minutes. I'm guessing that that looked like waves coming up pretty fast. I suspect that his ballast and helium might have been depleted to the extent that he was glad to put down in Newfoundland rather than ditch in the Atlantic. No doubt we'll be told shortly.
Gone down! by Bazman · 2013-09-12 23:47 · Score: 1

His website has, anyway. http://clusterballoon.com/ is giving me 503 errors.
Re:Man is nuts by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2013-09-12 23:48 · Score: 1

Not that nuts he's aborted http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24076168

--
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
So will this deliver him over the Atlantic? by dbIII · 2013-09-12 23:54 · Score: 1

So will this be enough to deliver him over the Atlantic?

Accenture IT
Makes sense now, triple the number of balloons and add another two years and he'll get half way there before crashing in an expensive failure.
RIP Larry Walters by Adult+film+producer · 2013-09-13 00:09 · Score: 1

You will never be forgotten!
Predictions by puddingebola · 2013-09-13 00:22 · Score: 1

I predict that in the year 2015, mankind will make dirigibles that are capable of flying distances of almost 200 kilometers. I also predict the these new flying machines will be capable of travelling at speeds approaching 30 miles per hour. I predict that the new technology of steam power will revolutionize society, providing cheap and freely available steam to anyone who will need to steam vegetables or other steamy foods. I further predict that by the year 2017, genetically modified horses that are as large as elephants will replace machinery and factories and become a common method of transportation. I also predict that in 2013 a man will attempt to cross the Atlantic using helium balloons, but will crash into the ocean about 10 miles off the Jersey coast and drown.
Track him at flightradar24.com by Muad'Dave · 2013-09-13 00:41 · Score: 2

Since it's a registered aircraft with a transponder, you can track it HERE - just search for N878UP.

--
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Well, that didn't work out well... by rootrot · 2013-09-13 00:51 · Score: 3, Informative

http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Man-using-cluster-balloons-lands-in-Newfoundland-4811559.php
1. Re:Well, that didn't work out well... by Morris+Thorpe · 2013-09-13 02:21 · Score: 1
  
  Gotta give him credit for a sense of humor. From the article,
  By Thursday evening, he was well on his way, headed toward Newfoundland. But a couple of hours later, he posted that he'd landed. "This doesn't look like France," he posted on Facebook.
Re:Man is nuts by ackthpt · 2013-09-13 01:22 · Score: 1

Not that nuts he's aborted http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24076168

Perhaps he will try again. If not we'll have to turn to some other adventurer for our vicarious thrill-seeking.

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
prime example of the American spirit by Thud457 · 2013-09-13 01:36 · Score: 1

Lawnchair Larry was truly an American visionary. An inspiration to us all.
And had to deal with the hardship that all such visionaries endure, one way or another.

This guy, and that double-Darwin award winning priest are lame-ass plagiarists.

--
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Danny Deckchair by EdA · 2013-09-13 01:45 · Score: 1

Sounds like Danny Deckchair! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337960/
Obligatory IT Crowd by barlevg · 2013-09-13 02:32 · Score: 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNKD4b4Kaa0&t=1m4s
Jen: Freddy, that bloke that did the charity thing where he tied the balloons to the chair.
Roy: Oh yeah...
Jen: Such a lovely idea. Floating from London to Glasgow to promote optimism...
Jen: Anyway, there's a collection for his wife and kids...
Re:What a great idea . . . by SleazyRidr · 2013-09-13 03:19 · Score: 1

Just keep going all the way around.

--
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Re:MythBusters by cusco · 2013-09-13 03:35 · Score: 1

How about the fact that Mythbusters is staffed by glory-seeking idiots with poor experimental methodology and an absurd sense of self-importance?

--
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Is he the same guy who asked this question? by Nikhil_Mahajan · 2013-09-13 04:12 · Score: 1

http://what-if.xkcd.com/62/
Re:MythBusters by rubycodez · 2013-09-13 05:07 · Score: 1

eh? people have levitated themselves with helium filled weather balloons, one man attached them to a lawn chair, look it up
mod parent up! by pne · 2013-09-15 21:35 · Score: 1

I thought of that panel, too.

--
Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.