Real-life flying ‘Up’ house goes airborne

By Molly McHugh Updated March 9, 2011

Some things belong only in the world of animated movies, but if you believed a floating house tied to balloons was one them, you’d be wrong. National Geographic decided to try its hand at recreating the balloon house from Pixar’s Up, and used hundreds of eight foot tall weather balloons to take a 2,000 pound brick house (complete with passengers) skyward.

The experiment wasn’t for whimsy alone. The project was part of National Geographic’s coming series How Hard Can it Be? and also earned its participants (which included the likes of balloon pilots, scientists, and engineers) the new world record for “largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.”

The new television series debuts this fall, so set a reminder now to tune in and watch the balloon house madness go down.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video below for more on the flying balloon house.

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Molly McHugh

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

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