Word: falcon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mysterious metallic balloon thought to be carrying a Colorado boy had scarcely returned to Earth last week when a new website launched, its domain name asking the question that much of the nation was wondering: WhereIsBalloonBoy.com. Inspired by the disappearance of 6-year-old Falcon Heene - which authorities now believe was a hoax - the playful site featured question marks next to a picture of a bird (a falcon, naturally) and was updated twice more as the story developed. It later depicted a falcon poking out from a cardboard box, where the boy was found hiding in the Heenes' attic. Within...
...Thursday afternoon, when anyone watching TV news had to stop whatever they were doing and shudder. The giant, silver, Jiffy Pop balloon was climbing higher over Larimer County, Colorado, and on the ground a 10-year-old boy named Bradford Heene had told the sheriff that his little brother Falcon was inside. Falcon? Was some Greek narrative poet scripting this tragedy? Their father Richard longed to live large, a scientist, storm chaser, wife swapper, aspiring reality-TV star. He had built the vessel in the backyard; they called it his "flying saucer...
...circled overhead in the widening gyre. There were power lines to worry about; some planes heading into Denver were rerouted. The cable-news anchors called in experts to speculate about how high the balloon might drift, how cold it could get inside, how fast it might fall, the odds Falcon would suffer hypoxia, or worse. But the only thing you could think as you watched, was how frightened that child had to be, how crazed with fear his parents, and how there seemed no way that this could end well. (See the top 10 conspiracy theories...
...what will surely be one of the strangest stories from the year, 6-year-old Falcon Heene from Fort Collins, Colo., was thought to have taken flight on Oct. 15 in a helium-filled homemade flying saucer that flew as high as 7,000 ft. (2,000 m) before returning to earth some 50 miles (80 km) from his home. Thankfully, Falcon was discovered hours later, reportedly hiding in a box in the family's attic. While his ill-advised adventure never really got off the ground, there is a rich history of do-it-yourself balloon travel - and many...
...fitting coincidence, the first known manned balloon flight occurred 226 years to the day before Falcon's supposed flight. On Oct. 15, 1783, French scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier ascended 84 ft. (25 m) off the ground - the length of the rope attached to the vessel. He followed this tentative milestone with the first untethered flight on Nov. 21, reaching an altitude of 3,000 ft. (900 m). But de Rozier would also have the inglorious distinction of becoming ballooning's first fatality. During a 1785 attempt to cross the English Channel, de Rozier...