'Star Wars' TIE fighter to fly through Indy-area skies
Balloon artist Brian Getz is building a 3,000-balloon sculpture of iconic "Star Wars" fighter plane that he'll hang from a hot-air balloon next week.
TIE fighters in the first "Star Wars" movie cast a spell as they darted and dived while chasing pilots from the rebel alliance.
You might be forgiven for daydreaming about them as the latest movie, "The Force Awakens," gets ready to open in December.
But what would the neighbors say if you told them you saw one flying over the skies of Central Indiana?
If Brian Getz has his way, they might admit that they saw one, too.
Getz, the Indianapolis-based creator of award-winning, large-scale balloon sculptures, is elbow deep in his latest project: a 25-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide and 20-foot-long balloon sculpture of a TIE fighter.
For the past few days, Getz and his team of volunteers has been painstakingly assembling more than 3,000 black-and-gray balloons inside a hangar at Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport in Fishers into a giant TIE fighter that he says will look "just like the movie." (The original movie.)
"This isn't a project for a client. We're just doing it for the fun of it," Getz said Saturday. "But we do want to take advantage of the buzz around the new movie."
Getz, whose work is on display at BriansBalloons.com, is experienced with this sort of thing. He regularly makes impossibly large balloon sculptures of animals, rocket ships, roller coasters — you name it — for individuals and companies around the country.
Indy balloon artist seeks world record
In June, an 88-by-70-by-27 sculpture he made of a common green darner dragonfly that hung for a short while from the ceiling of the Indiana State Museum in Downtown Indianapolis won the ultimate recognition: a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Modeling Balloon By a Team."
Getz is used to attracting attention for his oversized efforts. But he's adding a new twist this time: He plans to suspend the TIE fighter from a hot-air balloon as it flies over the Indianapolis area sometime next week.
Tony Sandlin, owner of Midwest Balloon Rides, is helping give a lift to Getz' latest idea.
He met Brian when Getz proposed to his fiancee, Christina Williamson, on one of Sandlin's balloon rides.
He and Getz said they will make final adjustments to the TIE fighter sculpture outside the entrance to the hangar where it is being assembled, because the sculpture is a bit too tall to finish inside.
Then Sandlin will attach it to one of his hot-air balloons with parachute cord, so that it will hang 25 feet below the basket as it lifts off into the sky.
First, he'll have to pick a day when the weather is clear and it's not too windy (up to 7 mph is best) and when the wind is blowing away from heavily populated areas.
If it goes according to plan, they'll be able to lift off from the airport on Thursday or Friday, Sandlin said, climb to at least 1,000 feet and drift for about a half-hour before coming back down in a field somewhere. They also plan to have a "chase" balloon to keep an eye on the first balloon and videotape the flying TIE fighter.
Sandlin says this isn't the first time he's suspended something below one of his hot-air balloons. In 2011, he was hired to hang a giant Japanese flag from a balloon flying over the Persian Gulf during the Asian Cup soccer championships in Doha, Qatar.
But hanging a giant balloon sculpture from the bottom of one of his balloons will be far more challenging.
"It it works, it will look like it will be free flying," he says. "That will make it interesting."
Call Star web producer Dwight Adams at (317) 444-6532. Follow him on Twitter: @hdwightadams.