Koenig is a hero to the balloon-bombarded farmers and a widely feared foe for balloonists, most of whom would rather land on a transformer than come down in Koenig's field. Koeing is also well aware of air balloon history.

If Charles Bronson were tough enough to farm, he would look a lot like Rudy Koenig. A little more than 6 feet tall, packed tightly with muscles earned the hard way and possessed of a pair of powerful hands that look like they could choke the fuel out of a diesel engine, Koenig is an imposing figure.

"It was a build-up of things," he said, speaking deliberately through his teeth of the event that has become legend in McHenry County. "He was the guy who came along at the wrong time. I had been having trouble with 'em for four or five years."

When balloonist Jack T. Corsten, a dentist, dropped down in Koenig's hayfield, Koenig decided it was the last, damaged, straw. He jumped in his pick-up with a pitchfork in his hand. "I drove over the deflated balloon with my truck, burning holes in it with the exhaust pipes, and then I stuck it with a pitchfork," Koenig said.

Corsten escaped a similar fate, went to court and filed suit seeking $3,400 in damages. He won a settlement out of court. "I wouldn't do it again; it cost me a fair amount of money," Koenig said, sounding unrepentant. "Next time, I'll just stand on the guy's balloon until the police get there."

It was some six years ago that the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas burned to the ground, killing 84 people. That loss of life spurred Sidney Conn to design a hot-air balloon that could be used to rescue people from the top of burning high-rise buildings.

Conn, head engineer at The Balloon Works, a balloon manufacturing company in Statesville, plans to build the first flying model by March. The company received a $ 50,000 grant in July from the North Carolina Technological Development Authority to help fund the research. The authority, established through the state's New Technology Jobs Act provides seed capital to small companies developing new or innovative products or services.

"The project is the first thing we've done to diversify ourselves," Conn said. "We're using more imaginative ways to work with technology we're already familiar with." The prototype balloon is called Skyjack. Conn named it after his father, Jack, who died last year.