Two Arizona businessman John Shoecraft and Ron Ripps launched a 10-story high helium balloon—dubbed the Super Chicken—from a football field at MiraCosta College in Oceanside. Attempting to make the first helium-filled balloon crossing of America, they got as far as Columbus, Ohio, before they were forced down by thunderstorms. In December, the Super Chicken II lifted off from the Oceanside college campus. That flight ended in a southwest Kansas pasture. In 1981 the Super Chicken III finally made the cross-country journey successfully after Shoecraft and a new co-pilot took off from Costa Mesa. KFMB reports from Janet Zappala and Dave Cohen