It was probably just as well that lorry driver Larry Walters didn't tell the authorities about his travel plans. The balloons, attached to the chair by four ropes, were arranged in four tiers above the chair. Although Walters wasn't the first to try taking to the sky with helium balloons, he was the first to hit anything like the altitude he did. In 2007, an Oregon petrol-station proprietor 'flew' 240 miles in a lawn chair powered by balloons. A Brazilian priest who went up in 2008 strapped to 1,000 helium balloons drowned in the Atlantic.
