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Chinese Balloon

It’s not the Sig, so don’t worry…
Really I meant to hit the hot button for
“ Curvy MILF” as soon as I found myself in the “Gay Fisting” area I….almost….immediately left.
 
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I wonder how many if you think this balloon, some sort of a real threat.

And think this guy is a fucking hero

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Cheap ancient technology that would gather information over a weeks time that would be done in seconds with the many satellites they have not to mention half of our government that would just email them the requested information they wanted. So what was the real purpose of the exercise .......

To make the US look even more stupid?
 
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I wonder how many if you think this balloon, some sort of a real threat.

And think this guy is a fucking hero

View attachment 8067503

Ok , let me answer all of your questions .

Yes I think it's a threat .

Yes I think he is a hero .

And yes , I absolutely believe hunter has some of your nudes on his laptop !
 
Lets see, the government didn't want to shoot down the balloon over land in fear of civilian casualty or property damage. It flew over Alaska and Montana, some of the most remote land areas known to man. Were they afraid of the technology being found and realize there's much more to this balloon than weather?

Could it be????
 
Lets see, the government didn't want to shoot down the balloon over land in fear of civilian casualty or property damage. It flew over Alaska and Montana, some of the most remote land areas known to man. Were they afraid of the technology being found and realize there's much more to this balloon than weather?

Could it be????
They damn sure did not want someone like me or you getting to the wreckage with a smart phone before the cleanup crew got there.
 
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Lets see, the government didn't want to shoot down the balloon over land in fear of civilian casualty or property damage. It flew over Alaska and Montana, some of the most remote land areas known to man. Were they afraid of the technology being found and realize there's much more to this balloon than weather?

Could it be????

There are more people fishing off the Carolina coast per sq. mi. than in much of the land that balloon traversed.

Wonder if Milley called his Chicom counterpart (again!) for permission to choot it.
 
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Fail #1: Letting the balloon enter US airspace. NORAD either missed it or DOD did not have the balls to follow policy.
Fail #2: Letting the balloon fly across strategic assets in MT. At this point a clear violation of policy.
Fail #3: Letting the balloon leave MT, one of the least populated states.
Fail #4: Letting some moron play Nintendo games in an F-22 and blow any evidence to bits and pieces. (The ring of shrapnel emanating form the AIM-9x warhead was impressive though.)

They should have called Maverick to put a couple of small vent holes in the balloon with the gun. Seriously, the issue of the balloon flying above the service ceiling of most fighters and the closing rate mentioned before could have been dealt with by doing some old-school pilot shit. Trading speed for altitude.

Approach the balloon fast on a straight course at service ceiling or even lower. Pull up, nose pointing slightly above the balloon, and bleed off speed. Once slow and close enough, fire a burst, roll over, and pull into inverted dive.

Can someone please try this on a decent flight sim? Chinese balloon was supposedly flying between 60,000 and 65,000ft. F-16 published service ceiling is 58,000ft.
Problem is the air density at that altitude. AD is super thin up there. Means not many aircraft can fly that high at their normal high speed cruise.
They have to fly pretty close to mach 1, which at that altitude is much faster in MPH terms. In aviation terms, that altitude and speed is called "coffin corner".

The only one I know of that can do it with no issues is the F-15. It has the record. 90,000 feet up and then coasted all the way up to 103,000. Now that's a war fighter. None better, ever. 104 kills with zero F15s lost in air to air combat.

 
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The barroon could have had numerous payroads.
 
Problem is the air density at that altitude. AD is super thin up there. Means not many aircraft can fly that high at their normal high speed cruise.
They have to fly pretty close to mach 1, which at that altitude is much faster in MPH terms. In aviation terms, that altitude and speed is called "coffin corner".

The only one I know of that can do it with no issues is the F-15. It has the record. 90,000 feet up and then coasted all the way up to 103,000. Now that's a war fighter. None better, ever. 104 kills with zero F15s lost in air to air combat.
A guy on another forum suggested a missle without a warhead to just punch a hole. Wonder if that would've worked or if it would have set the thing on fire.
 
A guy on another forum suggested a missle without a warhead to just punch a hole. Wonder if that would've worked or if it would have set the thing on fire.
Takes a pretty hot warhead to ignite an inert gas. Maybe I should write a little on how this balloon probably works.
 
A guy on another forum suggested a missle without a warhead to just punch a hole. Wonder if that would've worked or if it would have set the thing on fire.
I read that too. Seems logical if you wanted to recover the payload with minimum (no fragmentation) damage. I watched a closeup of the shot impact, and I have to say I have never seen such degree of air to air accuracy! and at close to 60K feet up no less! The missile hit exactly in the right spot to deflate the balloon and separate the intact payload. Of course on the way down the payload probably went supersonic, but that's a different problem.

I believe that is why they circled the balloon a number of times. They wanted to have a perfect shot, so they took a few sighters - BenchRest style :ROFLMAO: .
 
Problem is the air density at that altitude. AD is super thin up there. Means not many aircraft can fly that high at their normal high speed cruise.
They have to fly pretty close to mach 1, which at that altitude is much faster in MPH terms. In aviation terms, that altitude and speed is called "coffin corner".

The only one I know of that can do it with no issues is the F-15. It has the record. 90,000 feet up and then coasted all the way up to 103,000. Now that's a war fighter. None better, ever. 104 kills with zero F15s lost in air to air combat.



Didn't they have any supplemental control?

When the Starfighters were going to the edge of space they had to have assist thrusters because the surfaces didn't have enough air to work in.

Chuck Yeager fuck around and found out what a flat spin in space was.........space went home crying because it was Chuck Yeager.
 
Problem is the air density at that altitude. AD is super thin up there. Means not many aircraft can fly that high at their normal high speed cruise.
They have to fly pretty close to mach 1, which at that altitude is much faster in MPH terms. In aviation terms, that altitude and speed is called "coffin corner".

The only one I know of that can do it with no issues is the F-15. It has the record. 90,000 feet up and then coasted all the way up to 103,000. Now that's a war fighter. None better, ever. 104 kills with zero F15s lost in air to air combat.


Cool video.. but I HATE.......
when they show records in Meters and the clock on the right is in FEET..
WTF.. change both to FEET or both to METERS.. GRRR Make them match
Love the 70's music
HOLY CRAP... the F15 made it to 50,000 Feet, 10 seconds FASTER than the apollo Moon shot.. DAMN.. that's some crazy stuff.
I knew the bird was fast, never realized how fast it REALLY IS!!!
 
I just keep thinking is this where we are? We can't do covert (deniable) anymore? We can't pop a fucking balloon over the ocean without having it all over Twitter and TikTok twenty minutes later?
 
A guy on another forum suggested a missle without a warhead to just punch a hole. Wonder if that would've worked or if it would have set the thing on fire.

They should have done that as soon as it entered Montana airspace. Might have taken a day or two but would have brought it down slowly to a soft, intact landing. Zero danger to anyone on the ground.
 
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Didn't they have any supplemental control?

When the Starfighters were going to the edge of space they had to have assist thrusters because the surfaces didn't have enough air to work in.

Chuck Yeager fuck around and found out what a flat spin in space was.........space went home crying because it was Chuck Yeager.
F-104 - completely different aircraft. Very short razor thin wings, single engine. And extremely hard to fly well even in thick air. The F-15 has tons more thrust, and bigger wings = lots more control even in very thin air.

That said, the F-15 "coasted" to 103,000 feet. Meaning it was past the air-breathing limit (~100K feet) for air breathers but still had enough energy. It was basically ballistic at its highest point until it came back down to some breathable air for the engines and wing lift. An incredible feat of airmanship!

By comparison, the F22 is limited to ~65000, depending on actual air pressure. This is probably why for today's op they kept them at 58,000. Still an excellent display of combat airmanship. Being able to maneuver at that altitude and shoot a missile. I don't believe that has ever been done before today.

A "holy shit" moment for the rest of the world!
 
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They should have done that as soon as it entered Montana airspace. Might have taken a day or two but would have brought it down slowly to a soft, intact landing. Zero danger to anyone on the ground.

They knew about way before - like when it was over the Atlantic, when it was over Alaska, Aleutian islands etc. Many, many opportunities if they want to.
 
They should have done that as soon as it entered Montana airspace. Might have taken a day or two but would have brought it down slowly to a soft, intact landing. Zero danger to anyone on the ground.
Going by the Chicom response to the shoot down I think the USAF nailed it - Kudos to them. Maybe the reason for China being pissed off is that the last thing they wanted was for us to recover the payload in the best possible condition.

Well, we waited, then shot it down over water (better than hitting the ground) and made it land in water 47 foot deep! That tells me this was precisely planed and the Chicoms never thought that would be possible.

And sure, now they are pissed and plan on retaliation, blah, blah, blah. We got them by the balls and they hate that. When it comes to real tech, the kind WE normal folk don't even know about, them Chinese are still in the dark and way behind the curve.
 
Going by the Chicom response to the shoot down I think the USAF nailed it - Kudos to them. Maybe the reason for China being pissed off is that the last thing they wanted was for us to recover the payload in the best possible condition.

Well, we waited, then shot it down over water (better than hitting the ground) and made it land in water 47 foot deep! That tells me this was precisely planed and the Chicoms never thought that would be possible.

And sure, now they are pissed and plan on retaliation, blah, blah, blah. We got them by the balls and they hate that. When it comes to real tech, the kind WE normal folk don't even know about, them Chinese are still in the dark and way behind the curve.
Chat bot that you?
"Well, we waited, then shot it down over water (better than hitting the ground) and made it land in water 47 foot deep!"
I think the only thing planned was letting the balloon gather as much intel as possible. Once it was done gathering, the servants of China tried to save face by blowing the fk'ing thing up and destroying all evidence.
Once again, a few bullet holes could of caused it to descend. If you think they planned it to land in 47 foot water, then you have to believe; they could of dropped PLANNED it to descend; in an unpopulated area with a slow descent.
You drop SPY material BEFORE it spies, not AFTER.
You want to tell us how wonderful the economy is doing as well?
 
Going by the Chicom response to the shoot down I think the USAF nailed it - Kudos to them. Maybe the reason for China being pissed off is that the last thing they wanted was for us to recover the payload in the best possible condition.

Well, we waited, then shot it down over water (better than hitting the ground) and made it land in water 47 foot deep! That tells me this was precisely planed and the Chicoms never thought that would be possible.

And sure, now they are pissed and plan on retaliation, blah, blah, blah. We got them by the balls and they hate that. When it comes to real tech, the kind WE normal folk don't even know about, them Chinese are still in the dark and way behind the curve.

My understanding is hitting water at any significant speed is like hitting concrete. Not sure what terminal velocity for the falling payload would be, but still believe that had a "put a leak in the balloon" shot been possible, it would have provided the smoothest (relatively speaking) landing.

As has been pointed out by several more knowledgeable than me (not hard, lol), poking holes in a balloon at that altitude isn't that easy. Perhaps that is some weakness in our arsenal that should be addressed, if balloons become popular platforms again.

The missile with the blades that pop out and shred people might be good, especially if it can target center mass of the balloon, with no explosive charge.

As an aside, another pic/vid of the shoot down (turn volume down, idiot photog tried to make a music vid out of it, and failed)


I'm surprised there aren't pix with Nikon P950 (2000mm equivalent zoom) and P1000 (3000mm equiv) cameras. Although a Z9 with any good Nikkor 400mm+ lens should have been great (better than that guy's shot, even). Would have had by camera set up on the gimbal / tripod for a once in a lifetime grab.
 
I just keep thinking is this where we are? We can't do covert (deniable) anymore? We can't pop a fucking balloon over the ocean without having it all over Twitter and TikTok twenty minutes later?
Be thankful.

Had someone not seen it our govt position was leave it be.

They knew if it’s existence as soon as it was 12 miles outside of Chinese coast line if not earlier.

They think we are dumb and don’t see.

Tommy sees.
 
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Going by the Chicom response to the shoot down I think the USAF nailed it - Kudos to them. Maybe the reason for China being pissed off is that the last thing they wanted was for us to recover the payload in the best possible condition.

Well, we waited, then shot it down over water (better than hitting the ground) and made it land in water 47 foot deep! That tells me this was precisely planed and the Chicoms never thought that would be possible.

And sure, now they are pissed and plan on retaliation, blah, blah, blah. We got them by the balls and they hate that. When it comes to real tech, the kind WE normal folk don't even know about, them Chinese are still in the dark and way behind the curve.
What is the difference between water and ground at terminal velocity as far as damage goes?

Few holes could have made that balloon lose altitude and land that thing pretty much intact.

The only 4D chess was to help the ChiComs.
 
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I thought most high altitude balloons were filled with Hydrogen. I would think the issue would not be fuel, but lack of O2.
Ok. Here we go. The 3 school-bus sized array was mainly solar panel. Yes, there were probably antenna on the array, but the primary was solar panel. The solar panel fed electricity to a battery bus that fed a lightweight lithium battery. The battery operated the sensors. (Someone needs to do some homework on power requirements for IR thermography, which I think is one of the primary sensors.) Those who think Google Earth and Chinese satellites are just as good as a sensor at 60,000 need to do some homework. I digress. The balloon is lifted by helium. Not too long ago, the world's supply of helium was located exclusively in the panhandle of Texas. I digress. The altitude of the balloon is dictated by the amount of helium in the cell. To decend, a small compressor, powered by the battery bus, takes helium out of the cell, compresses it, and puts it in a carbon fiber tank. To ascend, the tank releases helium back into the cell and more lift is generated. This puts the balloon in selected altitude for favorable winds. The next question is whether the battery bus also powered small electric motors with propellers for maneuvering. That, I am 50/50. We would know this if General Woke would have shot this down over Alaska or Montana. Now we just have to take their word for what they found, or played like they didn't.
 
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My understanding is hitting water at any significant speed is like hitting concrete. Not sure what terminal velocity for the falling payload would be, but still believe that had a "put a leak in the balloon" shot been possible, it would have provided the smoothest (relatively speaking) landing.
It's a common belief but it's not true, and it all depends on a lot of variables.

Take the Acapulco cliff divers for example (~135 height jump). They safely land feet first. What if instead they belly flopped? And what if instead of water it was concrete - even landing feet first?

So you see, water is ALWAYS softer than concrete. And regardless of the surface composition it comes down to surface area and mass of the impacting body and the density of the surface.