Balloon House Goes UP!

I just love this story about the real life Up! Balloon house that took flight this year.  A small yellow house (only 16 feet by 16 feet) was lifted over 3000 meters into the air with 300 helium balloons, just like in the movies.

Real life balloon house goes Up! (image from National Geographic)

The stunt was filmed as part of a new National Geographic series debuting in fall 2011 called How Hard Can It Be?

The show’s creators decided to test the premise of the popular animated Disney Pixar movie Up! which tells the story of an elderly man that rescues his house from condemnation that would make way for urban development, and then floats it to South America with the help of hundreds of helium balloons.

The recreation of the scene is simply breathtaking!

Lest you think about trying to launch your own balloon house – good luck!  It was not easy at all to lift the modest structure, and required 3-meter tall weather balloons (each of which was filled with a tank of helium) and a launch from a private airfield.

The real life balloon house filmed for the National Geographic show flew for about an hour before safely touching back down to ground.  No sitings of Paradise Falls were reported.