by Joe Buffaloe
Daily Lobo
Not only scientists can build atomic bombs.
Albuquerque-based artist and UNM alumnus Chad Person thinks differently. Satirizing the U.S. government's idea of building "more usable" nuclear weapons, such as bunker busters, he has designed what he calls the world's first passenger atomic bomb.
Called the Fugo II, it is a hot air balloon in the shape of the Fat Man, one of the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in World War II. Person has already found a builder and a pilot, and plans to fly it in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta this October.
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The project embodies two of the main symbols of Albuquerque: ballooning and atomic weapons.
"It's about holding up a cultural mirror," Person said. "What does it mean to wake up two miles from the largest concentration of nukes in the world every day?"
The balloon's name comes from a Japanese bombing campaign during World War II, called the Fugo program, in which bombs were tied to weather balloons and carried to the Western United States by wind. One of those bombs caused the shutdown of a plutonium enrichment plant in Washington, delaying the U.S. nuclear weapons program for three days.
"It seems almost mythical to me," Person said. "Just using the wind, in this partnership with nature, it was able to strike a blow at the creation of nuclear weapons."
As a symbol of his message of disarmament, Person said he will destroy the balloon after flying it only a few times.
"We're going to absolutely tear it apart, in a sort of ritualistic way," he said.
The project has had its share of opposition, though.
"Some people think it's a celebration of the tragic death of tens of thousands of innocent people in Japan," Person said.
But on his Web site he said Fugo II is meant to be an advertisement against the sanitation of violence on a massive scale.
Still, he said it does not have to be seen as a protest.
"Atomic weapons are a huge part of our economy and culture, and I feel like we should at least acknowledge that," he said.
Getting the balloon off the ground won't be easy. A hot air balloon generally costs around $50,000, a bill Person can't cover on his own with a graphic designer's salary. Rather than seeking further corporate sponsorship, Person is soliciting funds from individuals through his Web site, buildthebomb.com.
All who donate $10 or more, he said, will receive a scrap of the balloon after it is destroyed.
"We live in a country where there isn't massive support for the arts," he said. "But this is a project for the people, by the people - if they want it to happen, then it will."
He said even if he does not raise enough funds in time for this year's Balloon Fiesta, he won't stop trying to build the balloon.
"I have to keep going at this point," he said.
