Veteran balloonist Laura Sheft's adventures have brought her over the Swiss Alps, the Rockies and other magnificent peaks and valleys. On the ground, Sheft the businesswoman has applied her aviation experience to book and market airships that float above sporting events, advertising client names and providing aerial camera shots for TV networks.

Now the Sanibel resident, who started flying balloons at age 13, is taking her career and company to new heights. Her firm, Airship Images, is expected to ink a deal with a French outfit, handling the marketing and placement of its new blimp and video technology on this side of the pond.

Not only will clients gain some lofty exposure unavailable before; TV viewers will be able to enjoy better video coverage with a special craft.

"This will be a one-of-a-kind, never-before-been-done opportunity," Sheft says. She should know; she's been in the industry for a long time.

The New Jersey native decided at age eight that she wanted to fly balloons. Five years later, she hopped in the basket and started training. One of her mentors was Ed Yost, commonly referred to as the father of modern hot-air ballooning. Thus far, she has logged some 2,500 hours in hot-air, helium and hydrogen balloons, 400 hours in airships and 250 hours in fixed-wing aircraft.

Airship International of New York hired Sheft in the early 1980s as the first female student blimp pilot. The physical demands of the job-there was no "power steering" for the heavy rudder controls back then-prompted her to move into the marketing part of the company, setting her on a career path she still follows today.

She's worked with several Fortune 500 companies to get their names emblazoned on blimps and flown above crowded events. MetLife, McDonald's, Liberty Mutual and Molson are just a few clients listed on her résumé. Gigs have included the Super Bowl, the World Series, and PGA Golf and college bowl contests. Coordination of that service typically involves tie-ins with TV networks, which she has handled also.

Sheft established Airship Images in 1990, providing turnkey services for businesses that want to tie together blimp advertising and broadcast.

Her partnership with Aerial Camera Systems France, which specializes in broadcast technology, will usher in services not offered before, she says. Specifically, the company will rent tethered balloons-unmanned craft called aerostats that can fly during cold months in the northern United States. Large, piloted airships aren't flown when ice, snow and wind are a threat. After October, the dirigibles stick to Southern climes.

The tethered version is smaller-about 50 feet long-and can be inflated on the spot, then sent up 400 feet-much closer to the action than larger, 200-foot-long airships can get; they typically must hover at 3,000 feet under regulations set by sporting organizations, Sheft says. Video from aerostats will be sharper, offering better play-by-play shots, she says. The digital, broadcast-quality cameras can monitor the entire sporting complex, even in the parking lots, as an added security feature.

Aerial Camera also can incorporate small-cam technology (perhaps tucked in a helmet) for use on players, vehicles, helicopters and small rail systems, such as dollies on tracks along the sidelines.

Sheft is confident the new product and service offerings will succeed in the United States. "This is unique," she says.

Fort Myers interior designer Nora Price met Sheft about three years ago and was so impressed by her accomplishments that she hired Sheft as a consultant to market Nora L. Price Interiors. "She's always doing something phenomenal," Price says.

Away from the business, Sheft still finds time to fly balloons and serve as a role model for young people who would like to follow in her footsteps. In fact, through her involvement with International Young Aeronaut Associations, she's become a mentor to 10-year-old Sarah Nichols of Maine, who plans to buy and fly her own balloon one day soon.

-Phil Borchmann