Balloons, UFOs, and other incursions of US airspace "You send 'em, we shoot' em"

[keith]

Or, you, like, ermmmmmmm...have some kind of visual check before you shoot it down?

I'm going to guess that, at high altitude, your stall speed is fairly high, especially in a fighter plane, which has a wing designed for low drag at high speed, not high lift at subsonic speeds. So your visual inspection might be carried out at 250-300 knots, at its lowest safe speed. Hard to read foot high markings from a safe distance at that speed. Visual inspection means making sure it's a balloon and not a passenger plane, not anything more detailed.

Photographs, however, can be viewed at leisure.

[pipistrelle]

But Captain Christopher got a good look at the Enterprise and photos.

[RTH10260]

pics in article

Pentagon releases selfie of US pilot flying above Chinese spy balloon
Picture was taken from the jet as the balloon entered US airspace earlier this month, before it was shot down over the Atlantic

Guardian staff
Wed 22 Feb 2023 23.20 GMT

The Pentagon has released a selfie photograph snapped by the pilot of a U2 spy plane that was hurtling through the skies above the Chinese spy balloon as the US military pursued and shot it down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.

The image clearly shows the mysterious, silvery-white sphere of the balloon with panels dangling below it and, whether intended artistically or not, a striking sight of the shadow of the US aircraft cast against the balloon.

The picture was snapped by the airman on the flight deck as the balloon entered the airspace above the continental US at high altitude. The selfie was first reported by CNN.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... py-balloon

[RTH10260]

these use water and not air to float ...

China is using spy buoys in the Arctic, says Canada

Sophia Yan
Thu, February 23, 2023 at 12:14 PM GMT+1

The Canadian military has discovered Chinese spy buoys in the Arctic which are monitoring US submarines and melting ice sheets.

Such "activity is not new”, Canadian defence minister Anita Anand said in televised remarks, implying that China has been engaging in surveillance efforts in the region for some time.

Officials described the objects as “dual-purpose technologies” but they have been reported in Canadian media as buoys used for spying.

It is unclear whether the Chinese buoys floated into Canadian waters or were purposefully anchored into the waters.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-using- ... 17466.html

(original The Telegraph)

[northland10]

This thread needs something.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[keith]

This thread needs something.

https: //youtu.be/UKkNlwpajNk

[Lani]

I haven't been watching the news very much lately, but I'm still hearing that there have been balloons crossing Hawaii for years. I guess this has been happening for years, but wasn't reported.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.aptonline.org/catalog/HAWAIIANA

For you, Lani!

HAWAIIANA

Documentary | TV-G

HAWAIIANA examines the enduring legacy of Winona “Aunty Nona” Beamer, a venerated educator, storyteller, composer and hula expert who dedicated her life to preserving and celebrating traditional Hawaiian culture. In her 20s, Aunty Nona formed a Hawaiian dance troupe that toured the U.S., eventually performing at Carnegie Hall and bringing the ancient art of hula to the wider public. Later, as a teacher at the Kamehameha Schools, she became a pivotal force in bringing Hawaiian culture back into the classroom. She coined the now well-known term “Hawaiiana” to represent a curriculum that included the best of Hawaiian culture, history and knowledge. Weaving together archival music and dance performances with past interviews and footage of Aunty Nona and her sons Keola and Kapona Beamer, HAWAIIANA offers a profile of a pioneering woman whose wisdom and life story continue to spread the message of aloha around the world.

[Suranis]

I did this to debunk a facebook troll who was claiming that the balloon did "figure of 8 loops" over military bases based on a BBC article that quoted "officials" saying it did figure 8s above military installations. I basically rubbished it saying there was no way a balloon could hold engines that powerful... but then I started thinking about it. So, here is me going through the Calculations. I'm sure there are engineers here saying it could have done figure 8s and I was wrong, but hey, that's the risk of putting it out there.

In the first run through I made the mistake of taking the square feet of a school bus rather than the cubic feet volume. This is the corrected version. Oddly, the amount of lifting power I had was MORE when I did the square feet version, 190 pounds.

The size of the balloon was described as "as big as 3 School Busses." Lets take a full sized school bus, rather than the medium I did earlier. Assuming a 40-foot length and the standard 7.5-foot width, the interior space of a full-length skoolie would total 300 square feet. Lets multiply that by 6 feet for the Height and that's 1800 feet cubic feet. If its really 8 feet for the height (I honestly don't really know) then you can do the calc yourself.

One cubic meter equals 35.3 Cubic feet so that's 51.1 Cubic Meters

At sea level at 0 degrees Celcius (about 32 F) Hydrogen has a buoyancy of 1.2031 kg per cubic meter. (Helium is 1.1145 kg per cubic meter)
So, that means that the balloon could lift at sea level about 61.5 KGs. Which converts to 135lb 8.6 oz of Equipment.

Of course the air density goes down as you go higher, but calculating the lift at high altitudes is above my pay grade of $0.

So ya, doing the calculations, I can conclusively say that BBC article is full of shit.

If you think they could have maneuvering engines capable of fighting high altitude winds, enough to do "figure of eight loops," inside a package of only 136 pounds then You need to patent that idea right now, buddy. I'm sure it could maneuver to a certain extent, but it was not doing figure of 8 loops. Gimme a break.

The other dimension for the balloon I saw is "200 feet high" but without the radius of the balloon I cant really do a calculation of the Area of gas in it. However I think its safe to say that was not more than 1800 Cubic feet. Even if you double it and the lift weight to 320 pounds you are still stretching credibility.

Sorry. I stand against the BBC and say there were no figure of 8s.

This is the BBC Article he pointed at, calling it "Your trusted source from your masters."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65169855

[RTH10260]

IIRC the balloon did not have any propulsion. To float in 8s it would have had to know the wind directions above and below and adjust the internal pressure to float higher or lower into the atmosphere. I did not read anything that a pressured tank of gas was discovered.

[Suranis]

I was just assuming that it might have had a small propeller or fan on it to give it some small amount of controlled motion. It really does not matter either way. There was no way it could generate enough locomotion to go against the wind. Just maybe drift to the side starting days in advance, if they wanted it closer to a specific area.

It had those large solar arrays on it and those have to weigh a bit.

[RTH10260]

on the lighter side, some decades earlier