Can Man Fly?  RE/MAX Ballunar Liftoff Festival Investigates

Houston, TX – August 12, 2003 – A man flies across the sky in a Birdman wing suit!  Rising country star Charlie Robison sings to the delight of fans!  The state’s largest hot-air balloon festival fills the heavens with the most spectacular visual collage you’ve ever seen.  The mightiest rockets ever created, the ones that took humans and their land rovers to the moon, majestically serve as a backdrop to dozens of skydivers spilling from overhead airplanes.  Ultra-light aircraft, hang-gliders, and para-gliders dart back and forth across the balloon field at the NASA/Johnson Space Center, like bad guys chasing James Bond.

Whew!  Can’t fit it all on the whole page, much less this space.  The eleventh edition of the RE/MAX Ballunar Liftoff Festival, presented by Schepps Dairy, delivers more eye-popping thrills and neck-turning airborne theatrics than all the world’s traveling circuses combined!   Children of all ages will be mesmerized by the variety of aerial entertainment, and those eleven year old and under will be admitted free all weekend. 

Balloons, of course, are the center piece.  Approximately 100 of them, averaging seven stories tall, but some extending to 130 feet from top to bottom, in shapes as varied as the HEB American Eagle, Wells Fargo’s Center Stage, and Schepps Dairy’s Airabelle the Cow.    In one of the largest balloon competitions in the United States,  simultaneous maneuvering of scores of airborne hot air balloons give the spectators below a stunningly uplifting show.   Can pilots steer something as large as a house?  

Kevin Orkin and Tammer Baker, aerial stuntmen without peer, will be performing three jumps daily in their web-like soft wing suits, as featured in the blockbuster movie Tomb Raider.    Leaping from aircraft at 13,500 feet, the two modern-day daredevils can actually fly by and “buzz” other descending parachutists, traveling horizontally at 70-90 mph.   Dedicating his performance to the Crew of the tragically lost Space Shuttle Columbia, Orkin will wear the STS 107 patch on his wing suit.

Extreme Bicycle Stunt Team, Elvis, NASA Astronauts, mass balloon glows at dawn and dusk, food and fun!  Complete schedule and directions at www.ballunarfestival.com. 

The RE/MAX network in Texas comprises over 4,451 members affiliated with 196 offices across the state, 53 in the Houston area. Under the RE/MAXÒ franchise name, these independently owned offices provide residential and commercial real estate services. Since its inception in 1977, the RE/MAX organization in Texas has experienced 26 consecutive years of growth. For more information, visit www.remax-texas.com.

Contact:
Mike Sumerlin, Sr. Writer/Public Relations
Msumerlin@remax-texas.com 281 828 8888 tel
281 828 8680 fax
RE/MAX of Texas
15415 Katy Freeway, Plaza Suite
Houston, Texas 77094
Ballunar Liftoff Festival, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Its mission is to help the public learn about aviation and space exploration, and to sponsor and fund educational activities that encourage young people to learn about aviation and space and to study mathematics and the sciences.