House attached to balloons flies, sets world record (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- How hard can it be to lift a house with helium balloons? A National Geographic team of scientists, engineers, and balloon pilots has demonstrated how to achieve such a feat, which was filmed for a new TV series called “How Hard Can It Be?” They conclude that, although it’s very difficult, it’s not impossible.

It took the team about two weeks to plan, build, and lift the house into the air using balloons. They needed about 300 weather balloons, each of which inflated to a height of 8 feet, in order to lift the 2,000-pound, 16x16-foot yellow house. Lifting off early in the morning outside of Los Angeles, the house floated for about an hour and reached an altitude of 10,000 feet.

According to the National Geographic Channel, the floating house set a world record for the “largest balloon cluster flight” ever attempted. The entire aircraft of house and balloons was about 100 feet tall.

The concept of a house being lifted into the air by balloons may sound familiar to young movie-goers who have seen Pixar’s latest animated feature called “Up.” In the movie, an old man and a boy go on a ride when the house they’re in is lifted into the sky by balloons tied to the house’s roof.

Just like in the movie, there were a few people inside the real-life house while it was flying. More details about the “balloon house” will appear in “How Hard Can It Be?”, which is scheduled to debut next fall.

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