Brief: Balloon rides proposed for Las Vegas Strip

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 2:29 a.m.

Bruce Erickson, president of balloon owner and operator The Great Balloon Experience Inc., said that at 120 feet high and 75 feet wide, the balloon will be twice as large as most hot-air balloons. It will be a spherical, as opposed to conical, balloon.

Such heft allows the New Frontier to contemplate doing more with the balloon than just offering rides. The resort is also asking the Planning Commission to approve "opportunities for large assemblages of people including on-board weddings."

The $750,000 balloon will be one of only 14 others like it in the world, Erickson said. It will carry 25 people at a time to a height of 400 feet. Erickson is on the team of the Virgin Global Challenger, the balloon owned by Richard Branson that will try for the third time this fall to circle the globe.

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