Air Swimmer

UFO? Nope, just a shark.

You know how sometimes you don’t even know that something exists and then, all of a sudden, it’s everywhere?

On New Year’s Day I looked out the window and saw this shark flying by:

I ran outside, snapped this photo and learned that my young neighbor had received this Air Swimmer shark as a present.

“You fill it with helium and it flies by remote control,” he told me, “I’m bringing it over to show my friend.”

Cool, right?

Well, it seems like my neighbor wasn’t the only one to get a flying shark for Christmas.

Consider this report, found in the New Zealand Herald, about a flying shark spotted way off course:

“….[F]rom a pilot on the Wings Over New Zealand Aviation Forum: ‘There I was, just cruising around at about 1500 feet above Hamilton …when I see an object that looks like a helicopter off in the distance. However, without getting much bigger (i.e. closer) it suddenly whizzes past my left wing … and although it has the same general shape as a chopper, this thing has fins and a tail instead of rotors. Despite the warning on the box of the Air Swimmer Shark (for indoor use only) someone’s $80 Christmas present (with $50 worth of helium) is drifting gently southwest over Hamilton city, climbing at about 200 feet a minute. I did my civic duty and reported it …as a hazard.”