In 1982, an American truck driver named Larry Walters tied a bunch of weather balloons to his garden chair and flew to an altitude of 16,000 feet (3 miles). Throwing air traffic control into panic mode, Larry was arrested upon landing and fined but became a national hero, and a motivational speaker, before shooting himself in the heart at the age of 44 in the Angeles National Forest.
In an interview following his flight, when he eventually floated back down to earth, Larry was asked why he had undertaken the project. Larry replied “A man can’t just sit around.”
