In high school, we crafted a  balloon from balsa wood, candles, and a dry cleaning bag. It worked well and floated half way across our small town before we genius teens remembered that launching candles might catch something on fire.

We raced across town and grabbed it as it landed in a back yard. That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was a dozen vehicles pulled over looking at it as if it were an alien spaceship. No one caught on.

Not having learned too much, we reorganized at the edge of town and relaunched it, watching it float away over the barren, snow-covered Fall fields of Illinois.

/CSB
//No jet fighters
///that time

wage0048: edmo: In high school, we crafted a  balloon from balsa wood, candles, and a dry cleaning bag. It worked well and floated half way across our small town before we genius teens remembered that launching candles might catch something on fire.

We raced across town and grabbed it as it landed in a back yard. That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was a dozen vehicles pulled over looking at it as if it were an alien spaceship. No one caught on.

Not having learned too much, we reorganized at the edge of town and relaunched it, watching it float away over the barren, snow-covered Fall fields of Illinois.

/CSB
//No jet fighters
///that time

In 6th grade, we made balloons out of tissue paper.  They were heated with a small propane burner that stayed put on the ground, and the contest was to see how long the balloon would stay aloft.  The teacher handled the heating element and used a timer so that each balloon would spend the same number of seconds over the flame before being released.

Clearly, I wasn't smarter than a 6th grader.