A few summers ago when Pixar's Up melted the hearts of American moviegoers, science and explainer blogs were buzzing over the prominently featured, helium-balloon powered flying house. At the time, Wired magazine guessed  that it would take 105,854 of balloons each with a volume of 14.1 cubic feet to lift that little yellow house. Pixar co-director Pete Docter and his team figured that it would take many more: something like 23.5 million party balloons.

Recently, a team of National Geographic engineers decided that "it's probably close to impossible to fly a real house." But a specially-crafted lightweight house? They tried attaching 300 high-powered helium balloons, and were apparently quite successful in flying it around. Watch below:

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ehayden at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Erik Hayden