In the go-go 1920s, everything was looking up. People imagined that the skies of the future would soon be dotted with airships and flying cars. And one promising “sport of the future” to come out of this era looks pretty damn fun: balloon jumping.
The idea was to find a balloon that was buoyant enough to lift you off your feet, but not so buoyant that you’d drift uncontrollably into the sky. The January 1927 issue of Science and Invention magazine described how such a balloon could be outfitted with a harness and would let the futuristic sportsman, “jump over a house, across a wide stream and even over fences and trees.”
via Gizmodo
