Chrysler Drops World's Largest Aerial Banner, Spooks FAA
Chrysler's attempt to fly a 53,000-square foot Ram-themed banner over the Texas State Fair to break a world record fell to Earth when the spooked helicopter pilot pulled the emergency release.
The Texas State Fair has become the "it" show for introducing new trucks like the Dodge Laramie Longhorn and this weekend's even bigger, because college football rivals The University of Texas and Oklahoma University face off Saturday afternoon at the Fair.
The show itself features a medium-sized car show, but the fair is dominated by GM who seemingly advertises on every open square inch. Thus, Chrysler thought they'd take to the skies with a 53,000 square foot banner that says "RAM: (They Said Make The Logo Bigger)."
By doing so they wouldn't just show off in front of a lot of truck buyers, they'd also break the world record set by the United Arab Emirates when they flew a 50,000-square foot flag banner over Abu Dhabi. We'll given credit to Chrysler for unofficially breaking the record yesterday when the Bell 412 Twin Engine Helicopter rose into the sky. Unfortunately, moments into the liftoff things went wrong.
The pilot, for as yet undisclosed reasons, felt uncomfortable with the banner and quickly pulled the emergency release. This sent the banner floating to the ground in a twisted mess, the 400-lb sand bag at the bottom slowly releasing its contents into the air.
Chrysler invited yours truly and a photographer to view the flying of the banner later on Friday afternoon, and even sprung for a fancy hotel in Dallas, but before we arrived at the airport they told us the FAA was investigating what happened and by 6:00 PM last night the event was canceled, perhaps out of fear of the helicopter crashing or dropping the banner on a bunch of rowdy football fans driving up Interstate 35.
Either way, we had fried beer, so it wasn't a complete waste. Maybe next year they should try for the world's largest Arial banner. Ha, font jokes are funny!
[Photo/Video: MyFoxDFW]