Balloons

A seven-story-tall, hot-air balloon was inflated Tuesday at City Hall as part of a kickoff announcement for Smith's Festival of Ballooning, a family-oriented fair scheduled Sept. 23-25 at Tustin Ranch and billed as the largest balloon festival ever on the West Coast. Event organizer John Korff said that about 125 balloons will float over Tustin in the early morning and late afternoon each day.

The City Council has upheld a controversial decision by its Planning Commission to allow a car dealership to fly a 24-foot-long helium-filled balloon above its business on Beach Boulevard. The commission granted Mike McCarthy Buick permission to fly the advertisement, shaped like a hot-air blimp, 200 feet above its rows of cars and trucks at Beach Boulevard and McFadden Avenue.

Researchers last week reported more encouraging results in using balloons to squeeze open damaged heart valves, a procedure that someday may replace open-heart surgery for thousands of people. The technique, tested during the last year on several hundred patients around the world, opens up heart valves that are narrowed by the results of rheumatic fever, birth defects or degeneration in old age.

Bullock's is seeking volunteers for a task of super-heroic proportions. Handlers are needed to guide the Spiderman balloon, a Gargantuan attraction known for its annual appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, during its visit to Northridge Fashion Center on Aug. 10. "They just need to be conscientious and weigh more than 135 pounds," said Betty Krogh, spokeswoman for Macy's and Bullock's. "And be able to take directions."

U.S. balloonist Steve Fossett drifted by Chile's mysterious Easter Island in the remote South Pacific, completing a third of his planned solo voyage around the world. The island, known for its hundreds of giant stone sculptures, is one of the most isolated inhabited areas of the planet, more than 2,000 miles off the Chilean coast. Fossett's mission control in St. Louis said that the 57-year-old adventurer could see the lights of the island as he passed overhead.

Another attempt to launch the first manned balloon flight around the world is scheduled Thursday, project organizers said. The Earthwinds Hilton crew plans to begin preparations Tuesday for a Thursday morning launch from Reno Stead Airfield. "We really have high hopes and confidence we're going to go a long ways," said crew member Dave Melton. Fickle weather thwarted a Dec. 16 attempt just 18 hours before the scheduled liftoff.

A hot air balloon landed unexpectedly at an intersection here late Monday, fire officials said. No one was injured when the balloon came down near Alicia and Moulton parkways shortly before 8 p.m., a County Fire Department captain said. The names of the occupants of the balloon were not available, the captain said. The captain said he was not sure if the balloon had had mechanical problems. The area is flat and has no large buildings.

A helium balloon on a test flight with a crew of three who plan to study the ozone layer made an unscheduled landing in a remote spot after the wind shifted, a spokeswoman for the Earthwinds project said Monday. The crew included the Soviet Union's chief of cosmonaut training and the inventor of the ultralight aircraft. No one was injured in the landing about nine miles south of here, she said.

An American adventurer soared away beneath a full moon Friday, beginning for the fourth time a quest to be the first man to circle Earth in a balloon. Steve Fossett climbed into his silvery Solo Spirit and waved to hundreds of cheering spectators who had gathered at the launch site, an open-air soccer stadium.

Normally, Krista Wallach brings babies into the world as an obstetrical nurse. Thursday, she moonlighted as an inflation specialist, giving birth to a giant balloon in Macy's 62nd annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. "Today, I'm delivering a bird," said Wallach, whose authoritative, orange-gloved hands directed the handlers of Big Bird, a 67-foot tall, 29-foot wide helium-filled replica of the "Sesame Street" character.