Posted on 03/27/2003 7:27:48 PM PST by mhking
2,600lb of wound elastic fails to bounce for TV cameras THE world's biggest rubber band ball has been dropped from an aeroplane a mile up to see if it would bounce when it landed - but things didn't go exactly according to plan. The ball, which weighed an incredible 2,600lb, was sent plunging to earth for a television show.
Experts thought the ball would bounce hundreds of feet into the air.
Instead, it created a massive crater when it crashed into the sun-baked earth of the Mojave Desert in Arizona at 400mph.
The ball was created by Tony Evans, from Swansea, who knotted together six million elastic bands over five years.
The end result was the massive rubber sphere with a 14ft 8in circumference.
Although it was large enough to make it into the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest ever, it couldn't fit inside Tony's home.
A US television company then offered to give the ball a spectacular send-off by dropping it from a plane and filming what happened when it hit the ground.
The show, called Ripleys Believe It Or Not, flew Tony, 54, and his wife Liz, 53, to America to watch the bizarre event.
The producers spent an estimated $4m on the episode, which began by taking the ball on a nationwide tour of America and ended with it being thrown from the back of the plane. Three skydivers filmed the descent.
Back home, Tony said, "It was an incredible sight. I've spent years working on that ball and it was my pride and joy.
"But even after all that I wanted to know what would happen to it.
"People would always ask me: What would happen if the ball was dropped from a great height? Would it bounce or would it explode? No one knew and now we had the chance to find out.
"Even though it was dropped from over a mile up, it took about 20 seconds for it to hit the ground.
"The producers had cleared one square mile around the drop zone for safety reasons but we still saw it hit the ground.
"There was a huge cloud of dust which went about 15ft-20ft into the air but we didn't see the ball bounce back up.
"We raced over to the scene and saw this huge crater, about 9ft wide, and the ball a few feet away from it.
"There were elastic bands everywhere, hundreds of them, and I could see that the ball had literally jumped out of its skin. It used to be over 4ft wide, but now it was just three feet six. The impact had knocked inches off it.
"I didn't mind though. I couldn't keep the ball in the house anyway and it was a great experience going to America.
"But it would be nice to get my ball back and do something else with it."
Tony's ball was so heavy it had to be put on scales normally used for weighing jumbo jets.
The retired taxi driver used elastic bands donated from all over Britain after news that he was working on the ball began to spread.
Rubber bands came from Harrods, the DVLA in Swansea, the Royal Mail which sent 20,000, and 1,000lb of bands from a woman in Edinburgh.
"It all started as something to play with in an idle moment but over time it grew and grew and I didn't want to stop," Tony recalled.
"Eventually I decided to go for the British record and once I cracked that I vowed to break the world record.
"I wasn't going to give up until I'd finished."
Tony has raised more than £1,000 for the Parents in Part-nership charity, which helps families with disabled children, by asking people to sponsor bands for 10p each.
The television show said it would like to put the ball in a museum for record breakers.
"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....
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Instead, it created a massive crater when it crashed into the sun-baked earth of the Mojave Desert in Arizona at 400mph.
I guess they are not so expert.
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