News Balloon-like UFO spotted over Sendai

thomas

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Thanks for all the lovely balloon images; time to get this thread back on track.

It's becoming clear that the Chinese balloons did not serve meteorological purposes. Chinese sources reported that the military unit in charge of outer space and cyber warfare was involved in the operation of the specific balloon that flew over the continental United States before being shot down by U.S. forces.

Beijing has so far maintained the airship was used for civilian weather research purposes. The Chinese military failed to notify the Foreign Ministry about its entry into U.S. airspace, prompting the leadership of President Xi Jinping to call for enhanced communications.

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Chinese military unit involved in balloon operation: sources

The Chinese military unit in charge of outer space and cyber warfare was involved in the operation of a balloon that flew over the continental United States before being shot down by U.S. forces, several Chinese sources say.

english.kyodonews.net

 

J

johnnyG

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Someone, somewhere, in some defense company, is working on "how best to shoot down a very high altitude balloon".

In another department, the radar folks are trying to improve their game, too.

 

Grandpa Frank

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I'd love to know the NSA's take on it. Anything that gives off a signal gets tracked by them. They would have known what was up with it when it was launched in China.

 

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johnnyG

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thomas

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I'm waiting for more info on that "octagonal object" shot down over Lake Huron. Aliens were not ruled out.

 

Grandpa Frank

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Grandpa Frank

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Mork wonders why everyone is shooting at him.

 

thomas

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Japan is reevaluating its previous sightings of unidentified objects, suggesting they were Chinese spy balloons.

"After further analysis of specific balloon-shaped flying objects previously identified in Japanese airspace, including those in November 2019, June 2020 and September 2021, we have concluded that the balloons are strongly presumed to be unmanned reconnaissance balloons flown by China," the defence ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday. It said it had "strongly demanded China's government confirm the facts" of the incident and "that such a situation did not occur again in the future." "Violations of airspace by foreign unmanned reconnaissance balloons and other means are totally unacceptable," it added.

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Chinese spy balloon may have been blown off intended course – report

US officials who tracked balloon from launch on Hainan island reportedly examining possibility that unusual weather took it over North America

www.theguardian.com

 

E

Eigo

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• #34

Amazon perhaps having a few issues with altitude control. Great for the Himalayas however.

...or, tests for probable radiation dispersal patterns for the data pot of WW III.

I prefer the Amazon option personally.

 

Grandpa Frank

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Grandpa Frank

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And the memes just keep on coming.

 

Grandpa Frank

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I had no idea how large this thing was till I read this. I figured it was about 25 feet in diameter , not around 130 feet. I thought the antenna was about 12 or 15 feet , not around 90 feet. And the fact it had propellers to steer it made it a very efective spy tool.

 

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johnnyG

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Since the balloon seems to have been at the operational limits of present-day fighters, I think there are a few F-104s being flown privately (nicknamed "the widow maker", germany lost almost a third of its 900 F-104s to crashes).

But, tho it has probably been superseded in some ways, wikipedia says:

It was the first production aircraft to achieve Mach 2, and the first aircraft to reach an altitude of 100,000 ft (30,000 m) after taking off under its own power. The Starfighter established world records for airspeed, altitude, and time-to-climb in 1958, becoming the first aircraft to hold all three simultaneously.

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The recent balloon, at somewhere around 55-60k feet, might have been easy.

 

thomas

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Yes, they called it "Witwenmacher" in Germany. Didn't NASA use the Starfighter as a test bed? Redeploying some of them shouldn't be too difficult. F-104 flight hours should be cheaper than the F-22.