By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU – Aroostook County folks are well known for their ingenuity, and that includes 7-year-old Wesley Hitchcock of Caribou.
Artwork by Wesley Hitchcock
Not even a pair of dead batteries could stand in the way of 7-year-old Wesley Hitchcock documenting Jonathan R. Trappe’s historic cluster balloon launch of the experimental aircraft, N878UP. Shown here, Wesley depicts the important elements of the event – the dedicated team of volunteers inflating the balloons, the helium tanks, balloons and the gondola, and, at bottom left, Trappe and Col. Joseph Kittinger, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon back in 1984, are being interviewed by members of the Barcroft media team who managed Trappe’s public relations for the event.
It was around 11 p.m. on Sept. 11 and Wesley sat with his father, Darryl Hitchcock, in the bleachers at the Sincock Street baseball field, watching cluster balloonist Jonathan R. Trappe prepare for an historic flight. Held aloft by 370 individual helium balloons – like the Disney movie UP – Trappe aimed to be the first person in history to cross the Atlantic Ocean in such a fashion, and Wesley wasn’t going to miss a moment of it.
The 7-year-old labored over a spiral notebook with heavy eyes, marking the page after long scans of the balloon inflation scene unfolding before him.
“The camera ran out of batteries, so he decided to draw it,” Darryl said.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and Wesley now has a tremendous piece of art to commemorate Trappe’s historic launch with.
Darrel explained that Wesley doesn’t normally stay up this late, but a special exception was made to watch the cluster balloonist prepare for takeoff.
“I wanted him to see the historic balloon launch,” Darrel said. When he was a young child himself, he attended a historic balloon event as well.
“I remember my parents taking me to one of them,” he said, referencing the two historic gas balloon flights that flew out of central Aroostook before, the Double Eagle II, flown out of Presque Isle in 1978 by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, and the Rosie O’Grady’s Balloon of Peace flown out of Caribou in 1984 by Col. Joseph Kittinger, who has been a valued member of Trappe’s team and was present for the Sept. 11 launch.
“It was dark, I barely remember it, but it was cool,” Darrel said.
It’s his hope that Wesley will remember a little more of this historic launch, particularly since they had an opportunity to speak with Trappe about a month ago during one of Caribou’s Thursdays on Sweden events.
“Who’d ever though they’d see 400 balloons in the middle of the ball field here?” Darrel asked with a grin.
