Well, my hands are most definitely sweating at this point, as this is probably simultaneously the most incredible and terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.
Illusionist David Blaine just spent quite a bit of time suspended above the Arizona desert by 52 helium balloons. He “took off” (if you can call it that) from Page Airport in Arizona, and spent roughly an hour suspended in the air.
He continued to gain altitude, and made it all the way up to 25,000 feet. As you’d expect, he needed oxygen at that altitude, given how thin the air gets. He detached himself from the balloons when he passed 25,000 feet, and then entered a free fall, until he deployed his parachute at around 7,000 feet. He ended up landing in the desert, where he was picked up by a helicopter.
You can track his “flight” through Flightradar24 with the registration code N947DB.
You can watch the live feed of the entire event here:
And to add an airline angle to this, kudos to Ryanair for the quick wit…
bit dramatic, our flights are literally a fiver https://t.co/POF4UCG0Pr
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) September 2, 2020
I’m speechless…
The one thing I’m curious about is if it there was any element of illusion to all of this. After all, Blaine is an illusionist and not a traditional daredevil. Was there some illusion here that we’re missing? Was this all a desert mirage? 😉
Only impressive if he had a plan to retrieve the balloon materials.
No hat on his head ?
It would have been impressive if he were actually hanging on to the apparatus with his own hands and not latched on with a carabiner. That was a lot of effort and build-up for a rather anticlimactic jump. Standing on a 90-foot pole for 35 hours was probably more difficult and dangerous.
Dude has been planning and training for a year and a half.. including multiple rehearsals.. I think he even had to get a pilot license and a commercial hot air balloon license and certified to sky dive solo
It was real
For a real daredevil non-illusionist check this out. Felix put some science behind his “illusion”. Good grief.
https://newatlas.com/record-setting-manned-balloon-flight-skydive-red-bull-baumgartner/24553/
You should see some of his tricks in David Dobriks vlogs. The guy is insane!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight
Even in these times, we can find something really cool to smile about!!
We happened to be in Page, AZ and witnessed the event live. Personally watched the balloons gain altitude until nearly out of site. It was the real deal.
Ben, he is 100% real. Guy is a nutty genius. It was incredible. Check out his podcast he did with Rogan; talks a lot about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3Zg37nIHo
Pretty fascinating with all the planning, training, and tech that went into this if you watch the video. I didn't go through the whole 3 hours but skimmed through most of it and while I'm not normally a fan of how his acts are sensationalized this was impressive. Not sure what some other watched but he is fully harnessed into the balloon setup and is well above the mountains when he disconnects. In the lead...
Pretty fascinating with all the planning, training, and tech that went into this if you watch the video. I didn't go through the whole 3 hours but skimmed through most of it and while I'm not normally a fan of how his acts are sensationalized this was impressive. Not sure what some other watched but he is fully harnessed into the balloon setup and is well above the mountains when he disconnects. In the lead up they went through all the planning and prep so no illusion with this.
Totally stole this from Stern. #longliveerictheactor
Have you ever seen David Blane spit out live frogs ? That guy is amazing . I’m thinking he could magically change a boarding pass from economy to first class.
@Ryan
Lawnchair Larry is my hero. Just a regular guy, a truck driver, who did something amazing.
It is reported that they asked him why he did it, and his response was "A guy can't just sit around".
So I guess you haven't heard of 'Lawnchair Larry'.... He went up to 15000 ft in a lawn chair strapped to 45 balloons and this was in 1982! 38 years ago.
Dang Ryan beat me to this!
but here some extra...his appearance on David Letterman show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wWds5r4DZs
Just copying Larry Walters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight
Nice guy but this feat would been interesting a century ago, not to mention this does nothing for our cause célèbre, travel hacking!
I can personally report seeing David Blaine reaching an altitude of 35000 ft -- ok it was inside a jetBlue A321 from JFK to SFO 5 years ago. He occasionally would pop out from his seat in Mint and entertain us in even more space with illusions. He performed one card illusion with me that still has me totally mystified.
He explained the planning the whole thing on Rogan: https://youtu.be/NY3Zg37nIHo
So he watched Up recently huh.
@Robert Hanson: "A human like black form is seen" Haaaa! Like Drumpf's claim that unnamed people in “dark shadows” are controlling Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. You Drumpsters are laughable.
25K? Felix Baumgartner is laughing.
Ryanair won’t let me fly with my baggage and balloons with a fiver anyway
Like Houdini, his stunts are the real deal.
More fake news. Check out the video. A human like black form is seen, apparently nonchalantly holding onto the balloons with only one hand. Really, just using one hand?
And 25,000 feet? The balloons never get higher than the surrounding mountains, and this not being the Himalayas, that's nowhere near that high. Not a very good illusion in my book.
This guy is the real deal. No illusions, just practice and training of the human body. I saw him live remain underwater in a tank for over 9 minutes.