As if bringing Pixar's 2009 film "Up" to life, I.T. tech project manager and aviation daredevil, Johnathan Trappe, is attempting the unthinkable and highly dangerous: crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air aircraft carried by a cluster of colorful helium balloons, the Daily Mail reports.
Trappe, 39, from Raleigh, N.C., began his journey across the ocean this morning, lifting off at 6:20 a.m. from Caribou, ME. He refused let the heavy fog, nor the fact that five people have died so far while trying to make a similar journey using conventional hot air balloons, deter him in the slightest.
"I'm just as afraid of dying as anyone," Trappe told the Daily Mail. "But I go forward in the spirit of adventure, doing something nobody has achieved before, and to live an interesting life."
During his trek, Trappe be sitting in a specially crafted boat kept in the air by a massive cluster of balloons filled with helium. He expects that the trip will take him anywhere from three to five days to complete, and if he successfully lands in Iceland or Morroco as predicted, depending on where the wind blows him, he'll be the first man to ever achieve the feat using such an air device. If he drops down into the sea, he hopes that the boat will save his life.
"It will be incredibly dangerous as I could be several days away from any rescue crew and it will mean surviving rough seas for a long time, alone," Trappe said.
To control his colorful aircraft, Trappe will drop ballast and pop the helium balloons or release them into the air if he needs to descend into lower altitudes. Already, daredevil Trappe holds the record for the world's longest ever cluster balloon flight, managing to stay in the air for 14 hours. He became the only man to ever the English Channel by cluster balloon in 2010, and the Alps in 2011. Now he's looking to stay up in the air for 62 hours or more.
As for professional guidance, Trappe enlisted the help of a metereologist who "advised Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking skydive from the stratosphere last year," according to the Daily Mail, 82-year old Colonel Joe Kittinger.
"I accepted the role of advisor on this project because I want to help a young man achieve his dream, to reach his goal," Kittinger told the Daily Mail. "Like me, Trappe wants to be remembered for achieving something that nobody has achieved before him. I'm here because I believe he can do it. His planning has been meticulous and if anyone can make this, he can."
Trappe and his team waited 100 aganozing days before it was safe for Trappe to begin scaling the Atlantic.
"It was nail-biting waiting for a weather window that would allow me to get up into the air and catch those transatlantic winds we'd been seeing," Trappe said.
Right before the launch, Trappe explained that "weather is absolutely the most dangerous factor," but added that it's "a double-edged sword."
"It's the only thing that will carry me across, but bad conditions could also ruin the attempt or endanger my life," he said.
To follow Trappe's progress throughout his journey, visit his website https://upacrosstheatlantic.com.
Click here to see photos of daredevil Johnathan Trappe right before and after lift-off in his massive, colorful hot air helium balloon device.
