Balloon

Jeffrey S. Kemp, who worked in his family's parade balloon business, died Sunday of a heart attack at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. The Ocean City resident was 40. Mr. Kemp, a former resident of Severna Park, was a balloon technician for Kemp Balloons in Selbyville, Del. The business was formerly located in Glen Burnie. Born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton, he attended city public schools. A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ullrich Funeral Home in Berlin.

It was almost dark in the fallow cornfield where pilot Michael Gerred had landed his hot-air balloon after taking two first-time passengers on a one-hour ride above the rolling countryside of north Harford County.The balloon had been deflated and Mr. Gerred fired up the burners in the basket, illuminating the night as he lifted his glass and offered the traditional champagne toast of a balloonist:"The winds have welcomed you with softness. The sun has blessed you with its warmth. You have flown so high and so well that God has joined you in your laughter and set you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

A man posing as a balloon deliverer held up an Ellicott City woman in her home Thursday afternoon, but was arrested after being followed by a motorist who had heard a description over a police radio, police said.The woman was not injured, police said.James Wesley Henson, 36, whose last known address was the 1600 block of Vincent Court, Baltimore, was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon, a handgun violation, theft and assault, police said. He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond at the county Detention Center, a correctional officer said.

TAKING OFF: They've done it by land, they've done it by sea, and now, dear readers, Rob Deford and the gang at Boordy Vineyards in Hydes are launching their 1990 Nouveau today into the air! Yes, today from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., they'll be celebrating the release of their Nouveau and Nouvelle wines with a balloon launch from the winery grounds, with two lucky partygoers as passengers.You're invited to join an afternoon of wine tasting, tours of the wine cellars, live music by Big Bertha's Rhythm Kings and hors d'oeuvres -- all for $12.In addition, guests on hand will be eligible for the balloon ride by entering their name in a random drawing.

If the helium balloon ride in Baltimore survives official scrutiny into why 16 passengers spent nearly two terrifying hours stuck in the air Saturday, it still will face what could be a more daunting obstacle that other attractions have failed to overcome: not enough tourists. The Baltimore balloon, already bailed out of financial distress once by the nonprofit Abell Foundation, has been struggling since its maiden voyage above the Port Discovery children's museum in July 2001. And now the operation could face higher insurance premiums, if it remains insurable, and perhaps even lawsuits, experts said.

The Inner Harbor's HiFlyer helium balloon will rise above the Inner Harbor Memorial Day weekend, four months after Mother Nature pounded the gas out of the tourist attraction. The 110-foot-high balloon popped under the weight of February's record snow fall, but it has been repaired and prepped for its third tourist season with the help of three engineers flown in from England. "The balloon has weathered many storms, and not all of them snow," said Mark Rosenberg, the balloon's manager for Sky High of Maryland LLC. "But we're back."

Baltimore's Top of the World Observation Deck may be closed after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, but concern over terrorism hasn't kept down the Hi-Flyer balloon or its passengers. Between 20,000 people and 30,000 people have taken rides in the helium balloon that offers panoramic views of Baltimore's Inner Harbor - and many of them have done so after the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center. In all, the balloon went up 2,144 times between July 19 and Nov. 9, according to computer records maintained by its operator, Sky High of Maryland.

GREENBELT -- Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are trying to design and build a super balloon that could keep a ton of astronomical instruments in the upper atmosphere for more than three months, up to 10 times longer than existing lighter-than-air craft.Today, conventional research balloons typically stay up only 10 to 20 days. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's new vehicle, called a "superpressure" balloon, would spend at least 100 days aloft, and serve as an ultra-low-cost orbiter that could circle the Earth 10 times.

Seeing all but going nowhere Nancy Oldewurtel of Essex has long been fascinated by hot-air balloons. So, for her 25th wedding anniversary, she booked a trip on one for her and her husband, Steven. "It's just something I've always wanted to do," she said, standing in a Carroll County field last week as the balloon was being readied for takeoff by Ron Broderick, owner of the Friendship Hot Air Balloon Co. Roberta Thoren of Annapolis would be flying that day, too. Thoren had recently retired from ARINC, and had been given a balloon ride as a parting gift.

The balloon man's dream is heading skyward. Despite questions about whether it would pop or create traffic jams, a Baltimore committee granted preliminary approval yesterday to a Pikesville businessman's proposal to create a balloon ride north of the Port Discovery children's museum. Lee Raskin, representative of the Sky High of Maryland balloon company, showed the city's Design Advisory Panel sketches of a 110-foot high helium balloon with a ring-shaped gondola and a colorful "Port Discovery" advertisement on its side.