Flying over Lake Michigan in the dark.. October 1959 Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
All drawings by Jean Fairbanks, Tony’s daughter.

Tony’s flight over Lake Michigan.
Interview with Tony Fairbanks on the occasion of his birthday. April 19, 1995
by Michael Fairbanks.

On September 28, 1879, a very famous balloon pilot named John Wise made a bad decision. He flew away from solid land toward the very wet center of Lake Michigan. On this flight promoting a local business, his passenger was a young bank teller with the St. Louis National Bank. John Wise was never to be seen again. On October 24, 1879, the body of George Burr washed ashore.

On October 17, 1959 a well-known balloon pilot, Tony Fairbanks, at age 52, lifted-off from a shopping center outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in a gas balloon for a short promotional flight. The balloon flew toward the center of Lake Michigan and over one hundred miles of wet water before a safe landing could be attempted. On this flight his passenger was a Milwaukee newspaperman, William Normul, age 31.

The facts as remembered by Tony: I took a newspaper reporter on his first balloon flight. As we flew over the lake, Bill complained that he had never before missed a deadline. I had no flotation gear, no food, no water to drink, no radio and no flashlight. I very much needed a flashlight because after dark I was not sure which line to the balloon envelope was the rip-panel and which line was for valving gas. If I had pulled the rip-panel line thinking I was valving a small amount of gas I would have instantly deflated the hydrogen filled balloon.

The facts as remembered by Tony’s son Michael: I was sitting down to dinner with my mother and sisters when the telephone rang. A reporter for a newspaper in Milwaukee called to ask my Mom how she felt about her husband being lost somewhere over Lake Michigan. We never did have dinner, and the phone was in use for several hours.

THE INTERVIEW WITH TONY:

Mike: How did this happen ?
Tony: The shopping center was two miles west of Lake Michigan. I intended to land before the Lake. Surface winds at lift-off were a very fast ten knots. I therefore had to take off ‘light’ by dropping a full bag of sand. Because of the greatly increased speed of the upper winds I was leaving land by the time I had stabilized the balloon at level flight. It was too late. I had no opportunity to land before reaching the Lake.

Mike: Did anyone on the ground know what happened ?
Tony: No ! Low level cloud cover obscured the view and we were far from land before our crew and the authorities would even guess our true situation.

Mike: How high did you fly over Lake Michigan ?
Tony: We flew at 5,000 feet above the water for the first four hours. As we approached the center of the Lake, it became completely dark. The hydrogen inside the envelope contracted with the cold of the night and the balloon began a descent which I slowed by dropping sand ballast. We stopped just above the water. For the next three hours the balloon continued to fly onward, occasionally hitting the water and bouncing back just a few feet above the Lake. Once or twice the basket hit the water so hard that the water actually came over the top of the wicker basket.

Mike: Did you or Bill Normul ever experience fear ?
Tony: Not really. The winds remained strong enough to keep the balloon moving. Our long drag rope trailed behind us so I was able to establish that we were traveling in ‘one direction’. Besides, I had saved on thirty pound bag of sand in case of an emergency. We were lucky by having a full moon above or we would have been in total darkness. Black water and black sky.

Mike: Tell us about the night landing.
Tony: I was watching ahead for lights. If the balloon was to approach a large area lighted by electricity, I was planning to pull t he rip panel to deflate in the water. Actually, the balloon pushed against the side of a steep cliff and the wind pushed the balloon upward to an area of solid land. Almost immediately the balloon basket was dragging through a line of trees and we had to duck our heads to avoid the branches as I pulled both lines to deflate the balloon. The basket settled softly onto the ground as the famous balloon used in the movie, ‘around the World in Eighty Days’ draped herself over the top of a tree.

Mike: What happened next ?
Tony: After walking past several empty summer cottages, we knocked on the door of the only occupied house and reported our plight. We were dirty, hungry, cold and wet. The owners invited us inside, but within five minutes several policemen arrived to verify what sounded like an unbelievable story told by two men who looked more like homeless persons then famous aeronauts.

Mike: Did this story have a happy ending ?
Tony: Eventually. The Police went by themselves to locate the balloon but without results. I had to leave the warm house and the now hospitable people to lead the authorities to the deflated balloon. We walked along the beach until finding the drag rope we were then able to locate the balloon. We were later dropped off at a local hotel to spend what was left of the night. From the hotel I telephoned my family in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, to learn of the concern for our safety. In the morning, with the help of a local fire truck, we retrieved our balloon and rented a vehicle for the return trip to Milwaukee.

Mike: Would you do it again ?
Tony: Yes ! But I would take along an inflated inner tube.