He is best known as the pilot of Mr. Peanut, the internationally recognized advertising icon of Planters Peanuts, but Eric Barnum has been around this sport for quite some time. "In ’67 or ’68 I saw a balloon while I was going to college at the University of Denver," recalls Barnum. "I remember chasing it down but to this day I have no idea who it [the pilot] was. I took pictures of the balloon and thought I might build one some day, but never did."
However, in a few short years after graduation, Barnum had bought his first balloon, earned a commercial rating, and by 1974 founded Falcon Aeronautical and began the search for a commercial balloon contract. His first was for the Dixie Electric Company, a regional chain of discotheques.
Five years later, the Champion spark plug balloon came to the US for a national tour. The balloon had earlier been operated in Europe and was to be piloted on the tour by two British pilots.
With their headquarters in Toledo, Champion’s chief pilot approached Barnum and asked if he could help. "I said yes, and had a heck of a lot of fun running around the country in their private jet scouting out launch sites and landing sites at the various venues where this balloon was to appear," Barnum explains. "They obviously didn’t know that these two British pilots could have done this just as well as I, and I wasn’t going to tell them differently."
The tour was a success and two years later, in 1981, one of the two pilots turned up in Toledo doing a tether to celebrate the merger of Standard Brands and Nabisco. Standard Brands had two Mr. Peanut balloons at that time (they had been operating in Europe) and one had been sent over for this party with plans to retire it afterwards. Failing to interest Planters in any further use of the balloon, this British pilot decided to leave the US and turned to Barnum for help.
"I loaned him the money for a ticket to Kenya, he was going to fly balloons in Africa, and in return he gave me the name and phone number of the guy at Planters to contact about the balloon.
"Well, I called him up and told him I was very experienced in special shape balloons and that he should consider putting the balloon to work." At that time he had made one flight in the old Champion spark plug shape. Hardly the stuff résumés are made of but it was perhaps an understandable boast. You see, Eric Barnum’s third Great Uncle was none other than the great showman and promoter P.T. Barnum.
After much discussion Barnum and Mr. Peanut appeared at a golf tournament where most of the corporate hierarchy were in attendance. This led to a second golf tournament appearance, then Barnum and Mr. Peanut joined a few other special shapes in October 1983 for an appearance organized by Tucker Comstock for the television show "That’s Incredible."
Incredible it was; this early special shapes gathering netted a quarter hour of prime-time, nationwide television exposure. That’s all it took to sell Planters. Mr. Peanut and Eric Barnum have been on tour ever since. In fact, including the European operation, the Mr. Peanut balloon program is the second oldest continually operating special shape contract in the world. Only the "Golli" balloon has had a longer run.
Flying the pint-sized Mr. Peanut (with barely 42,000 cubic feet of lift) offers special challenges. "My first concern is always that I have very limited range. I’ve got only an hour and fifteen minutes flying time to out of fuel on a 70-degree day. So, whenever you take off, you take the first opportunity to land, even if you’ve only flown ten minutes.
"The other major concern is that it comes down extremely fast. All you have to do is lay off the burner and you’re descending; you rarely have to use the vent.
"However, it’s very protective of the pilot," says Barnum. "You can land in anything and it won’t hurt you because you’re so protected by the confined (small) basket. It’s just like having a T-basket on a ride balloon. I am convinced that even in the typical sport basket there ought to be partitions; it would stop a lot of the injuries we see today. Peanut is a delight to fly and land in a high wind because you can’t get hurt, you just don’t get jostled around."
The Mr. Peanut program averages 6-10 events a year, but 1995 marked its most active season, with some 20 events attended. Lately his executive air charter service and children of high school and college age are taking up more and more of Barnum’s time, so Amo Judd often travels with the balloon.
However, Barnum has not shied away from balloons. He continues to sell rides and offer instruction. He is also a designated flight examiner and recently finished rebuilding an "antique" balloon.
"It’s a 1967 Raven S-40, if you can call a ’67 an antique. It was the fourth or fifth type certificated balloon built by Raven. It’s got the old single barrel burner and you have to burn constantly to keep it in the air, but it’s a lot of fun. I spent about three years looking for it; it has only about 50 hours on it. It’s really a neat balloon."