He was the great innovator of the plastic balloon revolution.

Spouses & Children:
(1) Vera Habrecht Simons - no natural children, but a daughter from Vera's first marriage who took the Winzen name (She divorced Otto and married divorced balloonist, Dr. David G. Simons.)
(2) Marion Grzyll [b. 5/4/1925 - d. 9/20/2008] - no children

Otto was an aeronautics engineer, an innovator and a charismatc visionary who made significant advances in the materials and construction of balloons. He emigrated to the United States in 1937, studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Detroit and after spending a fair bit of the Second World War in internment camps, was hired by the Minnesota Tool and Manufacturing Corporation in Minneapolis in 1945 as the company's chief engineer. Otto was working on developing instruments for Navy dive-bombers there when Jean Piccard bumped into him and sold him on the idea of high-altitude balloons, the two of them selling the Navy on the idea which became Project Helios. Both then worked together at General Mills. Not long after going to work at General Mills, Otto met and married the teenage daughter (Vira) of a Detroit society photographer named Habrecht - a contact he made through Jean Piccard. Otto pioneered the use of polyethylene resin for plastic balloons, which was light, relatively cheap, and unaffected by ultraviolet radiation. Otto convinced his manufacturing sources to make the plastics thinner and thinner until his balloons were thinner than human hair.

Otto left General Mills in 1949 to found Winzen Research, Inc. His young wife Vira Habrecht somewhat reluctantly dropped out of art school to take over duties at Winzen Research. In the 1950s, he sold plastic balloons to the Navy on Project Helios, Skyhook, and Strato-Lab. He also sold plastic balloons to the Air Force on a secret reconnaissance mission to overfly Russia called Moby Dick.

In the summer of 1958, Otto and Air Force Capitain Grover Schock were seriously injured in a balloon crash near Ashland, Wisconsin, both serious candidates to make the Manhigh III flight. In October 1972 he developed the Winzen Research Balloon, which achieved the record for the highest unmanned balloon flight, setting a record altitude of 170,000 feet (51,816 meters) over Chico, California.

FACTS:
Emigrated from Germany 1937; Second husband of V.SIMONS.
b: 1918 Cologne Germany
d: 1979
Education: University of Detroit, Engineering.

Research & development scientist for the U.S.Navy, Worked for General Mills Corp. & Minnesota Tool Co; Founder of Winzen Research Corp; Makers of Strato-Balloons, Bloomington (MN) and Sulphur Springs (TX).

First B-Flight 19 Dec.1956 w/D. SIMMONS from Bloomington, IL;

First B-Solo 30 Apr.1957 from Fleming Field, MN; FAA B-License #1386827 issued 30 Aug.1957; Trained many Military pilots, Total time in balloons 91:15.

Reportedly built his first Gas balloon in 1937; Owner of a traditional gas balloon "Sky-Car"; Developed polyethylene film for strato-balloons 1945-50 era.; Made the largest balloon ever built, 12 million cubic meters (423.7 million cu.ft.; Flew to 145,000' 1 Jun.1975).

Epic flight 13 Aug.1958 (w/ W.Schock) from Ashland, WI in "Skycar-I." Crashed and destroyed the balloon. Noted as the last flight in his logbook as "the END."

Address: 8401 Lyndale Ave; Minneapolis, MN.

Otto's brother, Hans P. Winzen, a captain during World War II, and a counter-intelligence officer in Germany, Ted Early's best friend, was president of Buick Motor Company and came up with the advertizing slogan "Better Buy a Buick," according to Betty Andrews. He had several patents.

Otto's wife Vira divorced Otto during the Manhigh III project. Vera sold her interest in Winzen Research and enrolled in art school in Washington, D.C.

From the "Balloon Encyclopedia -

During his life he participated as central speaker in many Symposia and Congress related to scientific ballooning and space activities, as well in 1957 he was delegate before the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. He was also honorary member of the Lighter Than Air Society (LTAS) and was considered by many one of the most authoritative voices in the field.

In 1993 the board of Directors of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, introduced the Otto C. Winzen Lifetime Achievement Award. This prize, created to honour the memory of Winzen is presented for outstanding contributions and achievements in the advancement of free flight balloon systems or related technologies. This award is conceded biennially (in odd-numbered years) at the Aircraft Technology Integration and Operations Forum or Balloon Systems Conference.

From The Baytown Sun, February 11 Feb 1986, Tue):

PARIS (AP) — Long before the days of NASA, Americans were exploring the near-reaches of space in balloons. Thirty-eight years ago, German balloonist and entrepreneur Otto Winzen provided the means to develop and perfect what was to become the world's premier high-altitude research balloon; a balloon that was manufactured in Texas by Winzen Research Inc., later Winzen International Inc. The Winzen balloon factory moved to Paris last spring after its Sulphur Springs plant was irreparably damaged by fire, but a related plastics plant remains in Sulpur Springs. Winzen emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930s to escape the imminent war in Europe. According to Loren Seely, manager of the Paris balloon plant and a man who claims to have known Winzen "as well as anyone could have known Otto Winzen," he was driven by a consuming passion for balloons. Many of his profitable business ventures were merely means to acquire the necessary funds for his balloon obsession. He was a scientist, a chemist, who routinely sold away the patents to devices that since have proved very successful, such as the "bag-in-the-box" one might see inside a cafeteria milk dispenser. Winzen was an inventor, a car collector and an eccentric who married several times. Ultimately, he committed suicide in 1979 by carbon monoxide poisoning. Before his death, he sold controlling Interest in Winzen Research Inc. to the company's employees who then changed the company name to Winzen International Inc. A minority share of stock is still retained by his widow. Winzen International Inc. has few competitors, Seely said, and of those few companies in the world that make high-altitude research balloons, most buy the polyethylene StratoFilm material to make them from the 80,000-square-feet Winzen International extrusion plant on Elm Street in Sulphur Springs. Much of the first high-altitude research was conducted by men in Winzen balloons, which are often mistakenly referred to as "weather balloons." However, Seely said: "Very rarely does a man fly in the balloon anymore. Most everything now is done by instruments." The height reached by some of these balloons is truly awesome, and must understandably exclude manned flights. The world records for largest balloon and highest altitude achieved by balloon are held by a Winzen product and are listed in the familiar "Guiness Book of World Records." At altitudes of 100,000 feet and beyond, certain types of research can be performed that would be stymied at ground- bound stations. Experiments in upper-atmospheric chemistry, such as ozone levels, are ideally performed by instruments held aloft by balloon. Winzen International has been commissioned by NASA and the Defense Department to engineer numerous projects, none of which Seely would discuss in detail, but he said some work is related to the controversial Star Wars missile defense system and post-nuclear attack communications systems. One project currently in production — a 40-foot by 10-foot balloon made of metalized polypropylene — will be used as a radar target for the space shuttle, he said. Seely said he believes every country in the world, except the Soviet Union and China, have used Winzen research balloons. Even those two nations may have "acquired" Winzen balloons in some way, Seely said. The Paris plant makes balloons of all different sizes by contract only. The most expensive is around 700 feet long and costs in excess of $100,000. The cheapest is about 70 feet long and costs about $1,500. Compared with the mega-million dollar cost of a single space flight, balloon research has consistantly proved to be very efficient. Of course, the relatively low cost of a balloon can be offset by the cost of the payload — instruments that can run into the millions of dollars. These payloads can carry devices for just about any imaginable scientific use. For example, physicists once believed that by using high-altitude balloons they could solve the riddle of the elusive "mono-pole" — theoretical, single concentrated magnetic pole that, if discovered and harnessed could give birth to inventions with fantastic and as yet only dreamed of electrical properties. The balloons are assembled in a modified chicken house 700 feet long and 42 feet wide located three miles north of Paris. There the strips of StratoFilm material are placed on tables 600 feet long and fastened together with a type of plastic tape, called "load tape," which is reinforced by polyester filaments. Sometimes a metalized-filament load tape will be used so the balloon can be traced by radar. The metalized tape is the same that has been ejected by fighter jets since the Korean War to create a "ghost" image to confuse radar tracking. Once assembled, the balloon is folded, accordion-fashion, into a box and shipped off to the user. Many balloon flights in the United States are launched from a facility in Palestine, run by NASA. Seely said the Palestine facility is like the Cape Kennedy of balloon-borne space exploration. In addition to the inflatable products division in Paris and the film production and sales division in Sulphur Springs, Winzen International maintains an engineering division in San Antonio and its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. Seely said the Paris plant's earnings will approach 81.5 million this year.

Betty Jane Early Andrews:
I was good at languages for some reason. In high school, in Latin, every year I would get an "A" because I loved languages. French, in St. Teresa's High School and in St. Cecilia's Latin. In first and second year Latin I always got an "A". I loved languages. At the University of Detroit, Spanish. Dr. Espenosa who I had at U of D said he could not believe it. He said I sat down correcting this one exam and every single answer was exactly right just as if I was copying it from the book. Spanish, Latin, French, even Italian, everything. I never took German but Otto Winzen always called me "shahtzi". I went to a German movie with subscripts and finally learned what that meant. I remember I went to a Legion of Mary breakfast and Otto came up and talked to me. And he got up to give this talk. And he said well Hitler this and that. And then he said, wait a minute. No, this is the way it is. There's not a convent standing in Germany now. And he knew he was on dangerous ground in America because people weren't getting out of Germany except through his uncle, Franz von Papen. Father Kuhn told me every man in Germany and Barvaria knows the name Christian Otto Winzen. He was the Henry Ford of Germany. His invention was the Volkswagen. Smaller and smaller and hardly any gasoline was used in it and took very little of the battery.

Otto's mother Lillie Winzen and I loved each other very much. Her brother was prime minister, von Papen. She was Lillie von Papen [but official records have her maiden name as Lillie Lerche]. Otto never bragged. He never talked about the fact that his mother was the sister of Von Poppen, the former Chancellor of Germany. Every time I'd bump into her, she'd be coming out of the convent, Mary Reporatrix, and I'd be going in.

Otto's wife Maryann was the most beautiful girl I think I've ever seen and the most wonderful Catholic. Otto was the most deeply religious person I have ever met and his wife Marion said, "the most spiritual." Otto took Marion to Oconto, Wisconsin to see Dr. Patrick O'keefe's (Betty's grandfather) residence and offices.

Otto said that his father told him never join any German club when you get to America, like the Bund. The German Bund had looked Otto up. Otto was politically naive and he joined this organization backed by the Bund and meet Vera there, who was not Catholic but German Luthern. Anyway, Otto did get a job through them and invited me to go to an evening social in a park one night sponsored by the Bund. The Bund met in the General Motors building across from the Fisher building in Detroit and I never went to anything other than this social which was in a park closeby. I met Vera, maybe not that night, but I did meet her. Otto called me one day. He said "Betty I have the most wonderful news." He said "could you ever come downtown. Just get on the bus and stay 'til the end of the line." So I got on the bus and the name of this place in Detroit is called Grand Circus Park where the buses all end. And he came up and grabbed my hand and he said, "I want to show you something." And he opened his wallet and pulled out a check. He said, "I've got a job." I don't know how much it was, but many thousands. He said, this is my first paycheck. He said, "I was so excited I couldn't come out to the house. I had to have you come here." He didn't know it but it was from the Bund; he was unknowingly employed by the Bund. It was so much he dared not leave until putting it in the bank.

And then I went into nursing and entered the Army as a nurse and didn't see Otto. He was put in as an American Prisoner of War and I lost track of, and I didn't see him. I'm getting into so many things… but anyway, America made him a prisoner of War and it saved his life. After I was in nursing, the FBI looked Otto up because of his membership in the Bund and put him in a concentration camp in Minnesota I think during World War II. Otto was transferred to a prison camp in Arkansas I think. The FBI questioned me about Otto.

Otto, when he came to our house at the farm, remember, he had the world's highest altitude record that night. After his visit to the farm he phoned me on my birthday [He remembers my birthday from the early days at U of D] and he told me he was up in a balloon and it crashed. It's hard to explain. Otto then told me that "if you hear that I died by suicide or accident, it will be neither."

Otto was the deepest Catholic. When a German has faith, it's very deep. And he knew the whole story as soon as he crashed and got back.

Cremated and was placed in a niche at Resurrection Cemetery. The location is Building 1, Our Lady of Mercy Patio, Tier D, Niche # 22 next to Marion Winzen.

Marion Grzyll Winzen: Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Death Record

Name: Marion Grzyll Winzen
State of Issue: Minnesota
Date of Birth: Monday May 04, 1925
Date of Death: Saturday September 20, 2008
Est. Age at Death: 83 years, 4 months, 16 days
Last known residence: Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota 55102

The 1958 baloon crash:
Otto C. Winzen and a Holloman scientist, Air Force Captain Grover Schock were badly injured in a balloon crash near Ashland, Wisconsin.

The series of animal and human balloon flights under the immediate direction of Lt. Col. (Dr.) David G. Simons, and the subgravity studies of Capt. (Dr.) Grover J. Schock and Dr. Harald J. von Beckh had established the Holloman laboratory as a small but essential contributor to the nation's progress in aerospace medicine.

"The Holloman Story" (UNM Press, 1967) said Capt. Grover Schock was the prime pilot for Man High III. However, during a Man High III practice ascent two months prior to the mission, "a freak mishap had plunged the car a hundred feet to the ground." Schock and Winzen were aboard, and Schock had "his throat cut almost from ear to ear." When Man High III did lift off, Winzen was laying "half shattered in a hospital room." Schock's life was saved on the scene by Master Sgt. Edward C. Dittmer, a medic and certified aeromedical technician who went on to train the chimpanzees HAM and Enos for their Mercury space flights. Dittmer, a volunteer at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, has told the story of how he sped to the scene at a high speed, refusing to even stop for a pursuing law enforcement officer. If not for Dittmer's determination and expert first aid, Schock would most certainly have died.

From: Dan Bowen
Subject: In honor of stratos, here's some reports about the original MAN-HIGH
Date: October 14, 2012

This one is notable for its crash landing:

[1] O. C. Winzen -Winzen, "Skycar Flight No. 797," Holloman Air Development Center, BT-3071, Sep. 1958.

The ill-fated Sky-Car Flight No. 797 was intended to qualify Captain Grover Schock as a balloon pilot under existing CAA regulations. Otto Winzen was the pilot instructor. After a fine flight, the last landing resulted in a crash, described in detail. At the date of this writing, both pilots are recovering satisfactorily in hospitals and expect to be released about the end of this month. As a result of the crash landing, two other pilots are being prepared for the MANHIGH III flight. They are Lt. Clifford M. McClure and Captain Harry R. Collins.

[2] Winzen, "MANHIGH I," 1959.

This report covers the manned balloon flight MANHIGH I, the first of a series of flights into the stratosphere. This flight was a preliminary investigation to the Man in Space program. The structure and instrumentation of capsule and aerostat are described, and the collected data are plotted and analyzed.

Thanks,
Dan

To the Editor
The Nashville Tennessean
May 15, 1961

CONQUEST AND THE COST

On May 9th, I had the opportunity to speak to Otto C. Winzen, owner and designer of the world's largest balloons. He told me of several major incidents which have occurred concerning his balloons. The one he emphasized more than any was the latest event, Thursday May 4th, the launching of the two man gondola to reach the highest altitude ever reached by man in a balloon.

Mr. Winzen was on the deck of the carrier Antietam when the balloonists were places in the open gondola. Mr. Winzen designed the blinds in the gondola which can control temperatures from plus 120 degrees to minus 120 degrees, as well as designing and perfecting many other delicate instruments used aboard.

Lt. Commander V. G. Prather and Commander Malcolm Ross left the deck of the Antietam as the balloon made the ascent, the operation alone costing $10,000. Two and one half hours later the gigantic balloon reached the altitude of 113,500 feet and made history in science.

Back on the deck reports were flowing in to Mr. Winzen as he watched the preparations for landing. At a certain height, the gondola separated from the balloon and produced a parachute. Mr. Winzen saw the landing and the dye-markers from the carrier.

These two men went up 21 miles, a perfect operation except for a needless accident.

In the plans of this operation a special craft of the Winzen Research Corporation was to meet the gondola at the dye-markers. As the craft headed out to the rendezvous, a helicopter also went out to the dye-markers, and let down its gear to pick up the men. Ross got into the helicopter safely, but as Prather was going up, he slipped from the sling and landed in the water. He twisted and turned trying to swim but the suit was too heavy, and he went down. An hour later Prather died aboard the Antietam. Prather was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 10th with full military honors.

Mr. Winzen said that this operation could have been prevented if Prather did one of two things. They are: (1) He should have waited for the barge to take him back to the carrier, as this was part of the operational procedure. This vehicle was designed for the purpose of bringing the balloonist to safety. (2) When Prather hit the water after he slipped, his helmet was still on. The helmet had a valve; he could have lived under the water for 15 minutes. He had been trained to do this, but he probably panicked.

The conquest was great but it carried a cost.

Bill Early Andrews
Rt. 2
Lewisburg, Tennessee

THE 'PRE-ASTRONAUTS" by Craig Ryan
(It's sad that Otto wasn't alive to tell his own story when this significant book was written and we will unfortunately never know his own thoughts, feeling and desires that brought him into ballooning and that shaped his and Marion's personal life; the story from his view point will never be told)-

Page 62:
General Mills' founder James Ford Bell formed an entire department to pursue high-altitude balloon work and staffed it with the top men in the business, among them immigrant baloon builder Otto Winzen and Jean Piccard. An extraordinarliy immaginative Navy officer got wind of some work going on at General Mills in Minneapolis. As then-Lieutenant Commander George W. Hoover remembers it, "The whole thing started when a man named Winzen walked into my office and asked, 'How would you like to go to 100,000 feet?'" Immediately impressed, Hoover listened intently as Winzen expounded on the new designs and plastics he was working with at General Mills. After a while, Hoover cut Winzen off and told him, O'Kay, you've got a job." Hoover convinved the Navy to enter into an odd alliance with General Mills, Piccard and Winzen...

General Mills and Winzen Research, Inc. submitted bids to build the balloon and gondola for Manhigh. David Simons personally inspected both facilities, interviewed their engineers and ratified the decision to select Winzen, known to the public as the manufacturer of plasttic bags. Simons was convinced that Winzen's techniques and capabilities werer significantly superior.

Otto Winzen, the charismatic president and co-owner of Winzen research, called his innovative polyethylene-lined box the Fluid-pak, and it was a commercial hit -$10 tin can vs $.35 for the Fluid-pal. But while plastic consumer itels paid the bills, Winzen was interested in only one thing: the balloon, ninety percent of research expenditures going into them... Winzen was an innovator and his plastic envelopes were different, made of a new synthetic called "polyethylene resin," which didn't expand like ruberized materials.

The World War II armistice brought Otto's release from a series of internment camps and he immediately became an important figure in the rebirth of high-altitude ballooning.He launched his first nonextensible (unmanned) balloon in 1947; it rose to 100,000 feet... With a central plotting facility at Lowry Field, Colorado, more than 500 Moby Dick balloons were released [to spy over the Soviet Union]. John Foster Dulles originally claimed that Winzen aerostats were weather balloons, but finally reneged and had the program killed when the soviets became aware...

Winzen was a visionary, a restless man with a vivid imagination and boundless energy - but he was not much for details... Winzen's first facility was a building alongside Fleming Field outside of Minneapolis... After many months of building extensions to keep up with growth, Winzen Research moved to a hudge new facility in Bloomington that housed an electronics lab, a model and machine shop, an environmental physics lab, and facilities for the flight operations staff. As time went on the bnew building had to be enlarged for the ever-larger balloon tables... As Winzen was fond of pointing out, :Balloons are the most complicated of all aircraft. The thermodynamics and physics involved are still not thoroughly understood.

At Holloman, planning for the next Manhigh flight began in earnest including formalizing the process for selecting the pilot. Batteries of qualification tests had been envisoned by von Braun and the Air Force. One notable absence from the panel was Otto Winzen who two months earlier with Grover Schock, was badly injured in a balloon crash near Ashland, Wisconsin. In fact, they had been recommended as the most promising candidates. About the crash, Vira Winzen said, "Someone panicked. I don't know whether it was Otto or Schock." Winzen reportedly had a great fear of landing in water. As the balloon approached the lake, he removed the cover from the cut-down switch, and then separated the gondola. The two men, strapped in thier seats, free-fell and the impact snapped the bones in Schock's legs and in one of Wonzen's wrists. It also literally turned Schock's heart around, nearly closing the aorta. Winzen was in serious condition when admitted to a local hospital a few hours later, but Schock got the worse of it; in addition the heart and leg damage, his throat was slashed open and he suffered a variety of head, back and stomach injuries.

Page 278:

Winzen Research Inc.'s bid to build the Mercury Space Capsule was unsuccessful, but the company did very well in the 1960s and Otto built a personal collection of some 50 automobiles that he kept in a hanger at Fleming Field in St. Paul.... Later after their divorce, his former wive Vera Simons recalled, "It's a macabre thing; Otto picked my birthday to commit suicide."

WINZEN, Otto C. (1917 - 1979)

Otto Christian Winzen was a German-American aeronautical engineer who in the late 40's started the modern era of scientific ballooning, introducing new materials and construction methods that provoked great advance in that field. Also he co-founded one of the long lastings companies devoted to provide balloon manufacturing and services.

He was born on October 24, 1917 in Germany, living a great part of his chilhood in Cologne, but at the age of 20 he emigrated to the United States. There, he studied at the University of Detroit, obtaining a degree on Aeronautical Engineering. As with many Japanese and German immigrants, he would spent great part of the World War II in an internment camp. During his years at the University he would met two key figures in his life: the aeronaut Jean Piccard and throught him Vera Habrecht, daughter of a Society photographer from Detroit.

After the war Winzen began working as chief engineer at the Minnesota Tool and Manufacturing Corporation, a small engineering company from Minneapolis. Around this time he was already happily married with Vera. In late 1945 while he was seeking advice from University of Minnesota to develope instruments for Navy dive-bombers, Winzen was contacted by Piccard who convinced him to join his project of a stratospheric manned mission. The Navy was pushing great interest in the project which would become known as Helios. One of the companies involved in the project was General Mills Inc. Soon after beginning to work on the project, Winzen was hired by GMI to work on their balloon development efforts and to establish what would become their Aeronautical Laboratories. The first balloon designed by Winzen was launched on September 25, 1947. During his stay at GMI he introduced several innovations ranging from a new system to heat sealing the balloon gores to load tapes that supported the weight of the payload, obtaining his first patent.

In 1948 Winzen left General Mills to establish his own balloon manufacturing company, Winzen Research, Inc. (WRI). This was possible thanks to the money borrowed from his wife's parents.

At WRI Winzen pioneered the use of polyethylene resin for plastic balloons, which he already used in General Mills. Produced from ethylene, a petroleum derivative, the polyethylene was light, relatively cheap, and unaffected by ultraviolet radiation. Winzen convinced his manufacturing sources to find ways to make the plastics thinner and thinner until his balloons were thinner than human hair. By the decade of 1950, Winzen had sold plastic balloons to the Navy, the Air Force and several Universities for projects like Moby Dick, Strato-Lab, Skyhook, a secret reconnaissance mission to overfly Russia called Project Genetrix, as well other scientific projects.

Specially focused on manned projects, he developed the Sky Car manned gondola system as part of the training needed for the pilots. With that system he made his first piloted flight along with Major (Dr.) David Goodman Simons' from Bloomington, Illinois on 19 December, 1956 and his first solo flight on April 30, 1957 from Fleming Field, the main launch base of that epoch for Winzen. He obtained his pilot balloon license (#1386827) in August that year.

1958, would prove to be a hard year for Winzen. While he was planning the third flight of the program MANHIGH, Vera divorced Otto. The couple had no natural children with the exception of a daughter from the first marriage of Vera, who took the surname Winzen. In August, while in a low level balloon training flight with Captain Grover Schock, over Ashland, Wisconsin, in an attempt to land before winds swept the balloon out over Lake Superior, the envelope was manually cut loose prematurely and the gondola fell about 100 feet to the ground. Both men were gravely injured. Winzen sustained fractures of the collarbone, two ribs, two vertebrae, right wrist, and lower arm, but against his own expectations at the moment of the accident, he survived.

In early 60's Otto married Marion Grzyll, his second wife. The company was very prosperous during that decade, with many balloon contracts, which permited Winzen for example to build a large collection of classic and sports cars which were kept in an hangar at Fleming Field. Among the innovations in the management of the company Winzen had created an employee profit sharing fund to which he would make annual deposits reflecting the annual profits of the company. Later when the increasing competition in the field of ballooning made these payments began to decline, Winzen created an employee stock option plan, which was one of the first such plans to be implemented in the United States.

At the end of the decade Winzen moved the manufacturing plant to Sulphur Springs, Texas. Those times are also signaled by several sources as the start of the debacle for him: first with the deterioration of his relationship with Marion, and second as a result of the cessation of control of the company to the employees, their engineering staff no longer looked to Otto for advice, while at the same time Marion's visits to the plant were sharply reduced. Slowly, depression started to set in until November of 1979, when at the age of 58, the great innovator of the plastic balloon revolution committed suicide. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in a niche at Resurrection Cemetery in Minnesota next to his second wife.

During his life he participated as a central speaker in many Symposia and Congress related to scientific ballooning and space activities, as well in 1957 he was delegate before the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. He was also honorary member of the Lighter Than Air Society (LTAS) and was considered by many one of the most authoritative voices in the field.

In 1993 the board of Directors of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, introduced the Otto C. Winzen Lifetime Achievement Award. This prize, created to honour the memory of Winzen is presented for outstanding contributions and achievements in the advancement of free flight balloon systems or related technologies. This award is conceded biennially (in odd-numbered years) at the Aircraft Technology Integration and Operations Forum or Balloon Systems Conference.

[Unknown source]: A local attorney was charged with selling the cars to settle his estate. I believe they belonged to Otto Winzen who was the owner of Winzen Research (an aerospace firm that was involved in front-end research early in the space program).

From talking with one of Otto's friends he had the habit of seeing a new car he liked and then buying several. The conditions of the sale included: fixed price all or nothing. I heard they went for around $550K. It was a nutty way to sell them. Even if you had the money at the time there were problems just moving and storing all that iron.

Today even 10 times that would be a bargain. Probably could have been a great auction.
I grew up (in the 60's) down the street from a guy who worked for Winzen. They were developing high altitude balloons. Never knew about the cars then. The story I heard is that he was found dead in the Rolls (engine running).
#

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Dear Mary Ann –
It is many years since you and Otto visited us at our farm in Tennessee in 1961! That was a very momentous & unforgettable event. From the great conversation that night I knew what a genuine & deeply religious person you are, Mary Ann. I was so grateful to God for giving him such a gift as you!
You told me that evening that on a business trip Otto still went to early morning masses. Yes, even at the Jesuit University of Detroit where Otto was in Engineering, he always was either at 6 am mass in the chapel in the chemistry building or at 6:30 am mass daily at the university church – Gesu Church.

Otto got his father & mother, brother Hanns and sister Elsbeth out of Germany, where Otto told me not a convent still stood under Hitler! My European History teacher, Fr. Kuhn, S.J., told me that otto's father, Christian Otto Winzen was the Henry Ford of Germany. Otto's father sold Volks-wagan to porsch in France to get his family out of Germany. Otto was in America (Detroit) a year before his father, mother, sister & brother got here. Otto's mother, "Lilly" Winzen's brother was Prime-Minister of Germany before Hitler came to power. Her brother Von Popin, was retained as prime Minister by Hitler. And at the Neurenburg was crimes trials Pope Pius the XII declared that Von Popin served under-cover for the Vatican for his whole tenure of office – a saint!

Lilly Winzen (Otto's mother) too was a saintly, beautiful & wonderful person. I loved her dearly. We were always running into each other coming in or leaving Mary Repartrix convent (a wonderful cloister for retreats adjacent to the University of Detroit campus). She was as deeply religious as Otto was.

By telephone, just a month or so before you & Otto visited us at our farm, Otto said what a magnificent soul you are, "Too magnificent to Loose" were his words.

Otto said at the time, "Betty, if you ever hear of my sudden accidental death or suicide, it will be neither!" Otto was too profoundly religious to commit suicide!

Love & prayers,
Betty

July 24, 2007

Marion Winzen called Betty Jane Andrews and they talked for over two hours. Marion said she thought of Otto everyday and that she had never considered remarrying, but they didn't discuss Otto's death. Marion died a year later.

The 1940 Census stated that son Otto and all members of the family including Otto's parents were born in Germany and that they were from Cologne, Germany, that Otto was a sales engineer in the steel industry making $1,500, that Hans was in customer research in an automobile office making $600, and that their father, Christian Otto Winzen (57), was retired with an income of $5,000+ [probably income from his investments since he was retired] and that their mother was 49.

Otto C Winzen in the 1940 Census
Age 22, born abt 1918
Birthplace Germany
Home in 1940

359 W Lewiston
Ferndale, Oakland, Michigan
Household :
Head Christian Winzen 57
Wife Johanna L Winzen 49
Son Otto C Winzen 22
Son Hans P Winzen 19
Daughter Elizabeth L Winzen 18

Otto's naturalization records have his name as "Christian Otto Winzen" (same as his father's) with a date of birth of Ocotber 24, 1917 and a naturalization date of January 12, 1938.

Christian Otto Winzen's naturalization record in the Detroit District court shows his date of birth as November 7, 1883 and his naturalization date as May 15, 1945.

New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

Name: Christin Otto Chr Winzen
Arrival Date: 5 Jul 1937
Birth Date: abt 1918
Birth Location: Germany
Birth Location Other: Colocne
Age: 19
Place of Origin: Germany
Friend's Name: Ch I Kerr
Port of Departure: Bremen, Germany
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Europa

New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 about Christian Winzen (shows Joanna at 49 and Elisabeth at 18 on ship with him - Hans arrived on the same ship as Otto but on August 29, 1938, a year later and 6 months before his parents and Elsbeth):

Name: Christian Winzen
Arrival Date: 2 Dec 1939
Birth Date: abt 1884
Birth Location: Germany
Birth Location Other: Cologne
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality: German
Friend's Name: O Winzen
Port of Departure: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Rotterdam

California, Death Index, 1940-1997 about Christian Otto Winzen:

Name: Christian Otto Winzen
Social Security #: 369202622
Birth Date: 7 Nov 1883
Death Date: 29 Apr 1954
Death Place: Los Angeles

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14,1958
BLYTHEVTLLE (ARK) COURIER
NEWS PAGE THREE

Crash Injures Balloonist*, Test Halted ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) -

The crash of a training balloon gondola Wednesday night injured a balloon builder and an Air Force researcher who was preparing for a solo flight to test man's reaction to isolation in space. The last was postponed. Capt. Grover J.D. Schock, 32, and Otto C. Winzen, 40, suffered extensive injuries when their open gondola plunged 100 or more fee to the earth after they cut loose from the balloon as it headed out over Lake Superior. They apparently released the ball-shaped gondola rather than be blown over the water in darkness. They smashed into a pasture half a mile inland when the gondola's parachute failed to open. Their fall was witnessed by a police officer, a waiting ambulance crew and two men in a plane sent aloft to follow the balloon.

Mrs. G. E. Terwilliger, on whose farm the crash occurred said, "There was a terrific thug the gondola came down 10 yards from our house." She said the balloon had been flying low, dragging a line that came close enough to grab. "I saw the balloon pass behind a grove of trees and while it was out of sight I heard a loud report. Then the balloon climbed into the sky without the basket." Schock, a space biology specialist, was cut under the chin from one side of his face to the other. He also suffered back and possible internal injuries. He was in critical condition but showing improvement, according to Capt. George Ruff, an Air Force physician treating him at St. Joseph's Hospital here. The physician said Schock could not be moved to determine the full extent of his injuries.

Assigned to Holloman Air Force, Base, N. M., Schock was raised in Galesburg, IL. Winzen is president of Winzen Research, Inc., Minneapolis, builder of plastic balloons for experimental purposes. He is in good condition, but suffered two broken ribs, a fractured right arm and back injuries. He will be hospitalized for several weeks. M. Lee Lewis, former Navy balloonist employed by Winzen, said it was the first accident resulting in injuries during the 12 year history of plastic balloons. The pair had ascended from St. Paul, Minn., 175 miles southwest of Ashland, Wednesday morning. The flight was made so that Winzen could qualify Schock for a stratosphere takeoff. Schock was scheduled to start his 20-mile-high flight Thursday morning from an open pit mine near Crosby, Minn. An Air Force officer said in Minneapolis that the flight had been postponed indefinitely, will be carried out at some future date.

22 December 1958

Dear Betty:

I can't tell you how sorry I was to have to call you and tell you of my change in plans. At the same time, I enjoyed so much talking to you again and to hear your voice for the first time in so many years. You sounded just like you did when I knew you in Detroit.

I'm still hoping to be able to get away and promise to stop by and see you either at that time or as soon as I make a trip south again.

My best Christmas wishes to you and yours and the hope that the New Year will be one full of blessings for you and your family.

Sincerely,

Otto C. Winzen
OCW:ms

P.S. I hope your children like the enclosed story which I did while I was in the hospital.

THE LITTLE BALLOONATICK
By Otto C. Winzen

CHAPTER I

Once there was a little tick. He looked like all the other thousands of little ticks. He worked in the woods and in the fields and made his living by climbing aboard a passing animal. He proceeded to drink from the animal until his belly was full, then he would drop off into the grass and would go peacefully to sleep. When he awoke he would be hungry again, and would repeat the process.

Then came the great drought. It was a year of disaster for the little ticks and they died like flies and people and animals would say, "What a heavenly year, no ticks this year," because they considered ticks parasites, not fit for living, disgusting creatures in every way. And the little ticks died like flies. Except our little tick. And his name was Spots. You see, he was different from the other ticks. He had imagination.

And in the drought, starving he would say to himself, "The Lord created me for a purpose. It is my duty to preserve myself and go on living. He gave me a marvelous body and a marvelous mind. They are sacred trusts. I must preserve them, and I shall preserve my body by using my mind." And this he did. This book is his story. A story of courage, curiosity and imagination. A story of the triumph of mind over matter, for the mind knows no obstacles.

CHAPTER II

And so Spots applied his mind. He had always been instilled with an insatiable curiosity. Never had he been satisfied with his lowly lot, crawling on his belly, hanging on the end of a grass leaf, or some other observation point from which he could watch the birds flying by like the masters of their element – the air. In the fall he even saw other normally earthbound insects take to the air. These were the little spiders who would climb to a high point like he himself would do. But they had learned to spin a net which eventually carried them off in the wind. Aeronauts, even though they were not intended to fly, just like the Lord had not intended ticks to fly, or so it seemed.

And so, we find little Spots sitting thinking, not about his fate – the fact that he was starving to death, like all his brothers and sisters and cousins and uncles. They all knew only one thing, complaint about their unhappy lot, and it was their minds that made them die, just like Spots as determined that his mind would make him live. And it did.
He sat there thinking, and thinking, and thinking, and he determined that if the spider could fly, so can he. And his mind helped him. He had trained it by his curiosity, by his inquisitive nature. So he knew of the materials that he could use, of the secrets of nature and the plants and flowers around him. Suddenly the idea came to him like a flash, " I will build a balloon!"

So this became his goal. More than that, it became his obsession. The balloon would carry him off to new areas. It would make him conquer his lonely existence and take him back to life, nourishment, health. And he set about to build the balloon.

And he thought, and he thought, and he thought. He had to find the thinnest, filmiest material so that his balloon would be of light weight. And again it came to him as an inspiration. He was going to use the skin of a small onion.
And he set out on a march to the near onion patch where he had spent many happy days in his youth admiring the beautiful shapes of the onions as they grew and also secretly enjoying their aroma. And when he finally arrived there, exhausted from the long march, he found a most beautiful sight, onions of all sizes. This year because of the drought they were small, they were just the right size for his venture. He knew it, and he was so fired with excitement that he set to work immediately. He selected a beautiful little onion and proceeded to chew his way to the inside, determined to hollow out the onion so that he would have left finally only the filmy onion skin.

But, Alas. What had been the beautiful aroma of smell became a nightmare of taste, and as he chewed away wildly, he found that while his mind was willing his body could not support his task. He became sick to his stomach. He vomited. He had to abandon his task. He was close to despair.

Worst of all, all of the little ticks in the neighborhood had seen him come, had heard about his foolish enterprise, and he provided them with the entertainment they so desperately wanted. It took their minds off their current misery, their own starvation, and so they danced about him and sang, "Look at the balloon-a-tick, look at the balloon-a-tick, the silly, little balloon-a-tick." For when they first came, full of curiosity about his task, he had explained to them that he was going to be an aeronaut, he was going to build a balloon. They did not understand. An so, as often happens in a case like this, they turned to mockery. And as lay there, his body wracked with pain. His stomach in convulsions, they danced about him, singing: "the silly, little balloon-a-tick, the stupid, silly balloon-a-tick." It was almost too much for little Spots to bear. It seemed the world had come to an end, but not quite. For when they saw that he paid no heed to their demonstrations, that he was too sick and ready to die, they left him and they went back to their old task, complaining to each other, and they died like flies like all the others.
But not little Spots. His mind again took control, and it controlled his body and it made his body well. Best of all, he found that his body had finally become used to the taste of the onion. He found that he could live on the juices of the onion. Sure it was a poor substitute for his normal bill-of-fare, but it made him live. It tasted awful, but it made him survive. And so, while he had failed in his major task of building the balloon, he had indeed saved his life. And he settled back to take a long, hard look at what he was doing. And he realized that he had been foolish. He had plunged headlong into this venture. True, he had the motive. True, he had the goal. But he did not know the way. He had attacked the problem blindly, without thought. Again he resorted to the mind, the mind which set him apart from the rest of the ticks. Spots had imagination.

CHAPTER III

And it came to him in a flash how to get the onion skin without having to chew out the inside. He would cut it from the outside!

And so he selected another onion, bit it free from its stem, uncovered it completely and rolled it into a shady spot where he set up shop.

Again, he set to work. But slowly and deliberately this time. He knew he was right this time for he had found that haste makes waste. "You must have the goal but you cannot achieve it without knowing the way," he said to himself. Now he was sure, he felt it in his heart. And now he knew the way and he set to his task like a craftsman. First he selected his tools. He picked from the grains of sand several which had razor sharp edges. With these he would cut. He selected from the trees fresh sap and found sources of fresh sap. This would be his glue with which he would cement together the panels of onion skin, because he knew he could not remove all the skin in one piece. It had to be disassembled and put together again to make up his wonderful balloon.

But Spots was more than a craftsman. He was an artisan. He was not satisfied with building something of utility. He wanted his balloon to be a thing of beauty, and again it came to him in a flash; he would build a red and white balloon, colorful and gay. And he set about to find the dye with which to paint every other panel. He found it in the juice of a red berry. And lo and behold! His love of the artistic again proved of help because the juice of this berry was a delectable substitute for the bitter tasting onion on which he had just barely survived. And his spirits soared as he drank from it. He became gay and lighthearted. His work became fun. Now he was really living.

CHAPTER IV

And so spots whistled while he worked. He carefully drew the patterns on the outside of the onion. He marked the lines where he would cut with his razors. And when he started to cut off the skin, the work went easy. He threw away the tough outer skin and very, very carefully peeled off the inner, gossamer-thin onionskin. He laid it out carefully on the moss to dry, away from the sun because it had to dry slowly so it would not lose its shape. He weighed these panels down with grains of sand so the wind would not carry them away. He thought he had been prudent. He had set up shop in a cozy place in the woods away from prying eyes, in the shade, close to his supplies, and life was good and it was worth living and it brought him the joy of work and accomplishment. And day after day he re-counted his blessings and thanked the Lord.
Then he discovered something else. He found the best way to dye the red panels in the juice of the Night Shade berry was to submerge the fresh wet skin in it right after he cut it away, so that it would soak up the red dye from the berry juice. He did not know this berry was poisonous to humans. He had seen birds eat it, and he also ate it without harm. And the onion juice and berry juice would mix and mingle, and then, stretched out on the moss the skin would become a beautiful dry red panel. Spots danced with joy at this discovery. Until now it had been disappointing trying to dye the dry panels with this juice. They had become spotty, and it had been hard work. Now life was good. Or so he thought, for his joy was short-lived. The Lord did not think he was ready for success. For success is not easily won. It must be earned. To win success he needed all the qualities he had, a brilliant mind, curiosity, imagination, a burning love of work. But he needed more. He needed to suffer, and the Lord visited him and made him suffer.

CHAPTER V

The rains came. They came suddenly and with such fury that they seemed like a great flood. First the land hungrily drank up the moisture it needed so much. But there was too much of it. Soon the water stood in puddles. Then it rose until it covered everything. A great flood had come.
And the surviving, half-starved ticks, they felt the water and they lapped it up. They soon revived and their spirits soared. The Lord had finally saved them. Rain meant nothing to them and they would climb up the trees to get away from the flood and find themselves a sheltered spot where they could drink and drink and drink and still protect themselves from being swept away. This is how some ticks survived and this is why they are still with us today.
But the little Spots the flood meant disaster. At first he rushed frantically to save his beautiful onion skins. He carried them into protected places. But as the waters rose, they were washed away. They soaked up the moisture. And they destroyed themselves as the water floated them up and tore them against floating debris, against the trees and the plants. Finally Spots gave up in despair. He crawled up the tree into a sheltered spot and he sat there and he cried, and he cried. And he said, "Lord, what have i done for you to do this to me? Just when my work is making beautiful progress you destroy it and take it all away." And the Lord let him sit there and rave until on the third day Spots gradually began to realize there was a reason for this. He was not ready to fly. He had to prove that he wanted to be an aeronaut even though he did not have to be anymore. At the time when famine had turned to feast and all the other ticks were again living a normal life, the Lord wanted him to prove that he wanted to be an aeronaut, that he was different from the other ticks, that he had a burning desire to fly even though he did not have to do this, even though he could again earn his livelihood in the way that all other ticks earned theirs. And on the fourth day Spots praised the Lord and said, "Thank you for showing me the way. From now on I will be a better tick. You will be proud of me."

CHAPTER VI

And again Spots set out to work. He was no longer reckless. He was no longer gay. But he found serenity. He was at peace with himself and with the Lord. And the Lord believed in him and felt he was ready for success.

And so Spots set up shop in a hollow tree – a beautiful workshop. There was ample light. It was high and dry. True, it was not a convenient as his former workshop because it required some traveling. He had to carry all his supplies, all his tools, some distance now. But now he knew that he was right. He knew instinctively that now he would succeed. He knew the Lord was with him. And so he rolled several onions of just the right size into the basement of his workshop. He also put some berries into the cellar. He found new tools. He cleaned the walls of his shop because instead of laying the panels on the ground, now he was going to hang them from the walls so they would dry more easily and he could hang them on the wall so they would hold their shape.

And while the other ticks feasted on their favorite food, Spots stuck to his monotonous bill of fare, onion meat and berry juice, onion meat and berry juice, day in, day out, day in, day out. But then the other ticks were normal ticks. But Spots, he was very special. You could say he was a chosen tick.

He worked with dedication. And yet he did not develop a one-track mind because he got plenty of exercise carrying the onion skin, running to the berry trees to drink their nectar. Nor did he forget the care of his body, because he was an athlete and so miraculously his work, his play, his fun were all rolled into one he couldn't tell where one ended and the next one began. He was a happy tick. Not happy like the other ticks. Their happiness was shallow. They had no goal, and therefore they were animals.

And to make Spots' happiness complete the Lord sent him a friend and companion. When he first appeared on the scene Spots was not so sure of this knight in a shining armor which looked like polished ebony. He introduced himself as Blacky, the artist-spider. He had come to spin a net in the large, ground-floor entry to Spots' upstairs work shop. He explained that he had watched how many flies and mosquitos and even yellow-jacket wasps had often flown into Spots' workshop, no doubt attracted by the potent scents. And Spots agreed that he had often been amazed, sometimes even frightened by these unwelcome, buzzing visitors.

"Good," Blacky said, "Soon you will not have to worry about them any more, I will protect you." And he set you work at once spinning the beautiful, lacy pattern of his net in the entry, yet leaving enough of an opening so Spots could easily get through.

The longer he knew Blacky the more Spots respected him. He was afraid of no one, not even the yellow jackets one of whom he neatly dispatched a few days later. In fact Spots soon realized that Blacky was an artist and idealist like himself/ For often Blacky would invite Spots down to look at his beautiful net in the sunshine, especially at sunrise when covered with a million pearls of dew, the net would sparkle like the most beautiful diadem. At times like these Spots realized that it was the net and its beauty for which Blacky lived, and that he ate only to stay alive, so he could re-spin a more beautiful net. The net was his life and his goal, his fulfillment, perhaps even his obsession, as ballooning had become Spots' life.

In turn, Spots would take Blacky upstairs to his hide-away workshop and excitedly show him the progress of his own work. Blacky would look and listen in awe. Although at first somewhat incredulous he would not tell Spots for fear he might inhibit his enthusiasm. And they became fast friends.

CHAPTER VII

And then the wonderful day came. The balloon was finished. Even lying there stretched out on the work table it was a thing of beauty. Its red and white panels looked gay, fragile, yet strong, colorful, artistic of excellent craftsmanship. For Spots had lovingly glued together all the seams, had experimented until he found just the right cement mixture, the right drying time, and had carefully resolved all the many problems like a true research scientist. Even Blacky was impressed.

When he was satisfied that the balloon was dry, he rolled it up carefully into a bundle and put it on his shoulder. "Gee," he cried, "Is this balloon light!" He was amazed, and at once he knew that this balloon would fly and that it would bring him the fulfillment of his fondest dreams. And Spots was anxious to try out his new masterpiece. He had been so absorbed in this work the last few days that he had not paid any attention to the weather. Now when he reached the door pf his workshop he saw that there was a terrible storm raging outside. Blacky was asleep, his net destroyed. Spots knew he had to abandon his plans for a test flight. So with a heavy heart, he stretched the balloon out on his table again and sat and drank some berry nectar. Suddenly he was tired. He had not been tired in weeks. While he was working his energy knew no limits. Now he was tired. He could not explain it. All he knew was the disappointment and let-down having finished his masterpiece not to be able to try it out.

And it stormed for days, and days, and days. There had never been such a season. First the drought, then the floods, then the storms. And Spots thought again of his Master and he prayed to him, "Lord, why is it that this year you send us all this terrible weather, this of all years, the year of my accomplishment. Why, Lord, tell me why?"

And the Lord was silent. He knew, but wanted Spots to know and feel it himself. And on the third day, Spots quit beseeching the Lord and began to think constructively. "I was a blind fool," he exclaimed, "Had I taken this balloon out I would have destroyed it. I cannot hang on to the delicate onion skin as I'm carried into the blue sky. I must design and build a harness which supports me and which is attached to the balloon so that neither will break."

And his joy returned. He set to work eagerly. Here was something he had overlooked, and he had almost risked and lost all the beautiful work he had done by his own foolishness. And Spots again prayed to the Lord.

He would fashion himself a beautiful suspension. His friend, Blacky, with whom he had often discussed his work, came to the rescue.

Blacky spun him a beautiful suspension harness. Blackey knew instinctively what to do. He was a true artist and proved he was a craftsman besides. Just like Spots. Best of all, he could spin the most beautiful and strongest threads which weighed practically nothing. The spider even knew how to attach his harness to the flimsy balloon without using any cement. And Blacky the spider made Spots stand under the balloon so that he could weave a new around him which would carry him on his flight. And Blacky proceeded to spin the net around him.

Theirs had been a strange friendship. Two artisans, each respecting the other's work. But now as Blacky wove his silky strands of threads around him into thick yet light ropes, Spots suddenly was terrified. There was something cruel about Blacky and he recalled how the spider wrapped his victims and he did not want to be one of them. Spots was near panic when the suspension net was completed and Blacky stood of off to one side looking critically at his work. "Get me out of here, " cried Spots to Blacky. "Get me out." And Blacky answered, "For someone so anxious to fly, you don't seem at all anxious to prepare for your task."

But spots did not tell him the real reason for his panic. And they remained true and loyal friends. In fact, Spots was ashamed of having doubted his friend, and he began to realize the value of friendship. He even began to doubt whether he had done a good job of constructing the balloon because Blacky knew the secret of cementing surfaces together without messy cement. He discussed this with Blacky, and Blacky in amazement said to him, "But you never asked me and I never thought of it." "Just for that," Spots replied, "We ought to build another balloon." And Blacky replied, "Let's fly this one first and get some experience." Blacky was right of course. Spots saw it at once.

CHAPTER VIII

And again the glorious day arrived. An lo and behold, it was a clear, calm, beautiful morning, the kind a true aeronaut dreams about. Here they were. Spots, the unusual tick, carrying the balloon on his back, and Blacky his indomitable friend. Together they marched to their balloon inflation site, the edge of an old swamp where Spots had often watched light gases bubble to the surface. With each step of their strenuous march they became more excited. Today was the day of days. It was the day on which Spots would fly.

And when they arrived there, Blacky nimbly climbed up a bush carrying in one of his many claws the top of the balloon. While below at the bottom of the balloon Spots climbed into the harness, This done, he backed into the hollow stem of a rotten tree stump the foul-smelling gas streaming into the balloon. It wasn't long until Spots felt himself getting lighter and lighter until all of a sudden his feet lifted off the ground one by one. Soon he had to hang onto a leaf of grass so that he would not rise into the air. And at that time he felt that he had enough lift to become airborne.

His balloon was a beautiful sight. Blacky stood back and admired it like a work of art. He cried, "I wish you could see yourself, Old Man, you never looked so beautiful. You may be ugly, but your balloon is a thing of beauty." Spots answered, "I wish I could see it too, but all I can see is the bottom of the balloon, and I have to hang on so I won't be carried away." "Here, give me your hand," cried Blacky, "and I will take you away from these obstacles." And he carried him off to a nearby sandy spot which would be their aerodrome. Spots excitedly cried, "Let go!" Blacky released his iron grip and, lo and behold, Spots was carried off, first rising vertically waving frantic good-byes to Blacky; then as he reached a layer of wind the balloon began to move away until it disapproved behind a tree and Blacky no longer could see him. Tears were streaming down his face. He didn't know if he would ever see his friend again.

At the moment Spots was too excited with his discovery. Here he was aloft, master of the land. He surveyed everything – field, forests, streams. He was truly the tick turned aeronaut, no longer a lowly tick like all the others and his heart swelled with joy and he praised the Lord. And then he became sad. He had left behind Blacky, his dearest friend. Would he ever see him again? And this sadness tempered his joy and made him remember there was a purpose to his mission.

Soon his balloon began to sink. Presently, and whether by design or sheer accident, Spots made a 3-point landing on the back of a beautiful brown horse. By this time the wind had come up, and Spots frantically tried to hold on both to the balloon and to the hair on the horse's back. One or the other had to give. He had to make a fateful decision. Should he save his balloon, his masterpiece, his life's work, or should he stay with the horse in the hope that he would be carried back to his friend Blacky? He chose to stay with his new host and disentangled himself from the artful harness. And then he sat there in the hot sun on the warm, brown skin of the horse with tears rolling down his face as he saw his beautiful balloon disappear over the horizon. And yet, inwardly he felt great joy. He had accomplished his mission. He had proven that he could fly. He had landed where he wanted to land, on the back of a beautiful host.

And very soon he was no longer alone. From behind tufts of hair appeared all sorts of fellow ticks moving up to him slowly, finally bold enough to touch him. Whom was this miracle tick – was he God? Or was he just an ordinary tick? They finally decided that he was. Then the questions came, faster than Spots could answer them. He tried his best to make them understand, but they didn't. So they laughed and again Spots found that the members of his own race did not understand him. This was a sad discovery and during the next few days while Spots for the first time in months took of his regular nourishment like the other ticks, he felt lonesome, desperately lonesome, even in the company of his own kind. They had first questioned him, then laughed at him, then despised him, then they ignored him. So he went back to a life of vegetation. For several days he felt sorry for himself.

And finally out of the depths of despair and gloom, emerged a new hope. "I must get back to Blacky. I must get back to my workshop. We must build another balloon." The horse wandered about in the meadow, must build another balloon." The horse wandered about in the meadow, and after 7 days of constant vigil Spots found that he was, Thank the Lord, approaching his old camping grounds. There was the tree where he had worked. There was Blacky waiting for him. And when he came as close as he thought the horse would go, Spots let himself drop to the ground and he made the rest of the way on foot.

But he was not fat as the other ticks were when they left their host. He was lean and hungry from weeks of dedicated work. He had taken only as much food as he needed to stay alive. In fact, he had discovered to his chagrin that the normal tick food no longer appealed to him.

CHAPTER IX

What a happy reunion this was! Blacky was beside himself with joy and almost crushed little Spots in his arms. "Let go, let go!" cried Spots. "you're killing me." And Blacky had to admit that he was much stronger than he thought. And so Spots told him his plan. They would build a new balloon. They would build it together as a team and the work would go 10 times as fast. No need to wait for preparing glue, no need to wait for glue to dry.

This same day they made some test seams in which Spots took some of the old, left-over panels and Blackie laid a thread and Spots immediately joined it to another panel with this thread. And, lo and behold, the system worked! The silky threads which Blacky laid would glue together the panels. There were no holes. They were perfect seams.
Joyfully they worked together. And light was their talk as light was their work.

One day Spots had an inspiration and he asked Blacky, "How come you don't fly? I have seen many spiders fly on their own webs." And Blacky replied sadly, "Listen my friend, it takes a special kind of baby spider to be able to fly. I am not one of them and besides I'm too old." "Nonsense," cried Spots, "As far as I know I'm the only tick who ever flew. If I can do it, you can." And he instilled in Blacky a burning desire to fly. What a glorious sight it had been for Spots to drift off into the heavens. He, Blacky, could do the same. And their zest increased a hundredfold as they worked together. Blacky spun some test sails and let them fly in the breeze, and he learned much about the laws of the winds and became more and more certain that he could do it.

CHAPTER X

And again the glorious day came when they both felt they were ready. Spots had a sparkling new balloon, a much superior model to the one he had flown before. It was gas tight, its seams were strong. He had a beautiful suspension net. Blacky had finished his experiments with flying threads. He felt he was ready, too. Lightheartedly they strolled to their inflation site and Spots' balloon began to swell beautifully with the gas. And then the wind came up. His balloon was full and Spots frantically hung on to some moss and shouted to Blacky, "Hurry up, hurry up! I cannot hold on much longer!" And sure enough, there was Blacky above him on a bush spinning away as fast as he could on a net which took a beautiful shape. It look like a wing and it looked like a sail. It was a piece of art. Finally Blacky shouted, "Let's go." He jumped aboard his aircraft and cast himself loose. At the same moment Spots released his grip. And they both took off. Off they sailed together into the blue yonder – an unlikely, motley pair – both determined to be aeronauts. Both had made their dreams come true, and Spots found that he enjoyed this flight a thousand times more because he enjoyed it together with his friend. And Blacky felt the tears of joy running down his black face, as every thought of cruelty which he might have harbored before seemed to leave him. The earth and its problems seemed far behind as they both sailed, light-headed, out into the sparkling day. Adventure ahead – where would it take them?

And they saw the most wondrous sights. Not only did they see familiar fields and trees and streams and animals. Soon they were flying over a city – a huge, monstrous city – wondrous to see from the air. And they were fascinated by its glamour, by its newness, by its beckoning of adventure. And presently they descended. They made their approach, and a beautiful approach it was, toward a huge building full of windows. And it seemed there was a man sitting near the window toward which they were headed. They made a smart approach on the table where he sat and the man looked up and noticed them and saw this unlikely pair alight in front of his eyes. Spots and Blacky noticed that his room was full of books. There were all sorts of strange instruments and in fact he had been looking very intently through one at the moment that they landed until he noticed them. They didn't know, of course, that he was looking into a microscope and that he was an entomologist.

"What an unusual pair," cried the scientist, "These we must preserve!" And he rushed over to a bookcase and got two glasses. Into one he put Blacky the spider. Into the other he put Spots the unusual tick, Spots the tick turned aeronaut. Quickly he turned down the caps and Blacky and Spots were prisoners. Then he took a magnifying glass out of his drawer and looked at them critically. First he looked at Blacky. This is just a common ordinary spider, he decided. No need to keep him and he walked to the window and emptied the contents of the jar over the side. Blacky almost broke his back as he fell headlong from the window two floors to the earth. But part of his net was still attached, broke the fall and saved him. He quickly ran over to the wall, rushed up to the same window to see what fate would befall his friend. And this is what he saw.

The scientist was eagerly studying the strange tick. He opened the jar carefully, with tweezers freed Spots from his harness, and put him on a glass plate. Then he moved him to the microscope and replaced some lenses. Spots felt as if he was really being examined carefully; and he was, because to the scientist he looked the size of a turtle and the scientist could see every detail of his body.

And the man decided this is just a common, ordinary woodtick. You see the man did not understand. All he saw was the body. He did not see Spots' mind. Spots, who had the mind of a giant while his body was deceiving, looked like that of an ordinary tick.