Engineers built and flew a replica of the flying house in Pixar’s “Up” — setting the record for the largest cluster balloon flight ever.
It took 300 balloons, each 8-feet tall and filled with an entire tank of helium. The stint was for or National Geographic Channel’s “How Hard Can It Be?” show. Watch the video report:
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
28 responses to “Flying House From Pixar’s “Up” Is Flown In Real Life [Video]”
What in the **** does this have to do with Apple? I am so done with this site and its hack job posts.
Since Cult of Mac covers all things noteworthy in the Apple/Mac/Steve Jobs-universe and Pixar is owned by Steve Jobs, and this is a recreation of a Pixar movie, I would say it’s apt.
And someone actually figured out how to fly a freaking house with balloons, that’s FREAKING awesome!!!!
What do you have against fun dude?
Let’s play six degrees of separation:
1 – “UP” replica inspired by “UP” movie.
2 – “UP” movie made by Pixar.
3 – Pixar owned by Disney.
4 – Disney’s largest shareholder is Steve Jobs.
5 – Steve Jobs is CEO of Apple.
Made it in only five steps! Of course, with 5 steps you could probably make this post related to Libya, Dick Cheney, or blueberry syrup.
Yup, I knew someone would invoke “six degrees of”. Big deal? What about Pixar movie news? What did Brad Bird have for breakfast today? I mean, where does it stop?
Got nothing against fun. I come here to read about Mac related news. This is related in the smallest sense of the word.
Not to mention I have seen it on just about EVERY site out there today.
Stay on topic or I leave. Simple as that. I am making the suggestion to CoM. Don’t worry, you don’t got to get your internet defense helmet on.
Wonderful!
Unfortunately, they kept the stupid ABC logo on top of the house and then cut the video off too soon.
NPR & PBS have been running stories about the shortage of helium and how the govt sold off our national reserves. Seems pretty stupid when you consider that.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ru…
Oh please, STFU. You looked at it didn’t you? Who cares what you think? Quit wasting our time with comments about stuff you think is a waste of time.
Oh please? You sound like a little bitch.
He’s right. This post is junk.
No, you sound like a little bitch. Another asshole wasting people’s time.
Where does it stop? That was my whole point.
Was relating it to Libya, Dick Cheney, and blueberry syrup too subtle for you? Wow.
Who the fuck says “oh please”. My girlfriend doesn’t even say that.
And who responds with, “no, you”. Are you in 3rd grade?
We ain’t wasting people’s time. You’re the asshole who NEEDS to reply.
Ah, another glen beck wanna be….the moronic rants of someone that needs to get a life!
I got a life. It is irritating idiots as yourself. And it is fun as hell :)