Amateur scientist and weather chaser Richard Heene said he was in the process of testing a high-voltage hovercraft-style device when the experiment went awry Thursday, sending his helium-filled balloon floating across the plains of northeast Colorado.
Heene said the device, in the very early stages of development, was an experimental craft called a “3D-LAV” (low-altitude vehicle), designed to allow commuters to float above traffic on their way to work.
The intent Thursday was for the balloon to hover 20 feet above the ground in a test flight while tethered.
Heene told CNN on Thursday night that his wife was to have tethered the balloon while he went to turn on a timer for the high-voltage equipment. He said the balloon’s outer skin contained aluminum foil for the conduction of electrical charges. Heene said the area below the balloon was a “utility container for the equipment” with a cardboard door on its bottom. The box was about 16 inches high by 48 inches across — large enough for his children to climb into.
Heene’s balloon does not appear to be built from a commercially available kit, according to a leading balloon expert.
“Through all time, people have experimented with things,” said Brian Boland of the Experimental Balloon and Airship Association on Thursday as he watched Heene’s device shortly before it slowed and landed in a Weld County field. “It doesn’t look like it was constructed poorly.”
While Heene’s balloon was being used for unmanned experimentation, it’s likely the craft would fall under Federal Aviation Administration regulations for “moored balloons, kites, amateur rockets and unmanned free balloons.”
Federal regulations cover any unmanned free balloon with a payload package that weighs more than 6 pounds.
A separate FAA regulation covers airworthiness standards for manned free balloons and would likely govern any hovercraft-style device like Heene’s. An applicant for a certificate to operate such a device “must show that the balloon is safely controllable and maneuverable during takeoff, ascent, descent and landing without requiring exceptional piloting skills.”
