ABSTRACT
Talk about fun, for this 1920s’ sport the “jumping balloonist” wore a harness fitted around the body and legs. Ropes ten to fifteen feet long radiated up from the harness and attached to a small balloon eighteen feet in diameter. Three thousand cubic feet of hydrogen gas filled the balloon. Thus attired, the balloonist ran for a short distance then leaped into the air, catapulting 40 feet high while covering a distance of 100 yards. As soon as he or she touched ground, another little run and a kangaroo spring propelled the balloonist up and away again. A poetic fan described the experience:
In balloon jumping the coming back to solid ground is like a gull lighting on water, like a leaf drifting down softly on a still day in October. The wind is your slave and the genii of the balloon take you up and put you down as deliciously as Aladdin's did the Princess, asleep in her royal bed.
