Let's see...Let the Chinese gather all their "intelligence" from the balloon data, then shoot it down. That way the Chinese are not pissed and the American public is (not) duped that action was taken. The decision makers are the real fools.
As in the delayed sound of the warhead's explosion reaching the ground...That balloon should have been shot down over Alaska before it reached the lower states. The Chinese already got their information by the time it was shot down. My brother in law said after the balloon was shot down just seconds later was a very loud boom that shook everything. People in his neighborhood came out of their houses not know what the explosion was.
Steve is right, I don't know who you are. Maybe I'll figure that out one day.Typo. I actually have an engineering and accountant degree.
Thanks for catching that, my bad.
Just enjoying rocket friends and banter. I’ll strive to do better.
As an interesting side note, this is the first "Official" kill of the F-22. No one would have ever guessed in a thousand years the first F-22 kill would be on a balloon. Also interesting, and more importantly, the B-52 still has a higher air-to-air kill tally than the F-22 and F-35 fleets combined. The more you know...
They shot it down over the ocean... which makes me think that this was their strategy all along. They wanted to minimize the damage to the payload.That balloon should have been shot down over Alaska before it reached the lower states. The Chinese already got their information by the time it was shot down. My brother in law said after the balloon was shot down just seconds later was a very loud boom that shook everything. People in his neighborhood came out of their houses not know what the explosion was. He sent me cool pictures of the jets releasing their rockets to take it down. I have to have him send them to me. Way to long to take it out. It’s funny how another one is flying around below the equator.
Apparently the two ship that killed the balloon was "Frank 01" and "Frank 02" from Langley AFB in VA. The "Frank" call sign was in honor of Frank Luke, WWI ace known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster".
The F22 ceiling published ceiling is 65,000 feet.
If you ever watched any television shows that featured high power rocketry in the 2000s, you would have seen Pat. He’s intelligent, witty, and very well spoken. He absolutely knows the difference between moot and mute. (I’ll deny I ever said anything nice like that next time I see him)Steve is right, I don't know who you are. Maybe I'll figure that out one day.
As for the correction, I had an old boss who was always talking about "mute points," and was clearly ignorant of the distinction. It didn't make him look good. Just trying to help spread the knowledge of the language.
You're on fire.According to my sources, the ceiling for the F22 is 1,625 metric school buses.
You're on fire.
Sure, you could send a Formula 1 car to pull a car out of the ditch instead of a tow truck. It'll definitely get there faster in good weather. Definitely not the easiest way to do the job tough...you know that our satellites could have told you exactly what GPS position it was when it splashed down, and you also know that we could have taken five or six of these boats and made it out to the Splashdown site in about an hour, not two days
My other brother in law said he was shopping at Lowe’s when the customers herd the explosion and everyone ran out of the store to see what was happening.
Second.... I heard a radio interview a couple days ago.
The guy talking was basically saying that he's surprised there's as much reaction about this as there has been. Apparently, the US has over a thousand such balloons over the continent at any given time. They are all at such an altitude (60,000' plus) that essentially no one notices them, even though they are "in plain sight" all over the place. They go up, and come down, all the time.
Yes, this one is Chinese, and yes that is definitely a concern. But according to him, it's really not all that unusual, given that there's thousands of balloons up there "all the time", and that a certain percentage of them (ours AND theirs) are bound to go off course (perhaps even intentionally) from time to time. He made it sound like a foreign "weather balloon" over the country is probably more common than not.
Either way, it shouldn't have been there, and the US was right to deal with it. But the whole "shocked and surprised" thing is overblown. See a Chinese balloon over your territory? Shoot it down, and get on with your life. Done.
s6
(Bold is from the original source, not added here.)So, how long is a school bus? School buses range anywhere from 20 to 45 feet in length. In general, buses that are 20-25 feet long are considered mini or short. While buses that are 25-35 feet long fall into the mid-size category, and buses over 35 feet are full-sized.
If you ever watched any television shows that featured high power rocketry in the 2000s, you would have seen Pat. He’s intelligent, witty, and very well spoken. He absolutely knows the difference between moot and mute. (I’ll deny I ever said anything nice like that next time I see him)
Because he came across so well on camera, he was often the spokesperson for Tripoli Rocketry Association and his work as the insurance chair, while we were struggling through the ATF lawsuit and financial woes, (led by some very good presidents at that time) helped lay the groundwork for our thriving high power rocketry now.
https://trailandsummit.com/how-long-is-a-school-bus/
(Bold is from the original source, not added here.)
It's between 60 and 135 feet across, apparently. It's almost like they intentionally didn't want to say how big it actually is. Or, more likely, the news media had no clue.
It also allows the Chinese to complete their mission.If I were required to bring it down (remember it’s the size of three school buses) I would use a piloted drone (think cruise missile for target practice) and just pilot it through the balloon and to a safe crash site, assuming the drone could survive the entanglement.
Unfortunately, it’s no longer above the sparsely populated western states so it’s probably not able to be targeted until it’s beyond the eastern seaboard.
This does give our folks a longer chance to study the thing.
Finally... You saved me some typing. Also, the balloon was converted to a drogue. If the solar panels survived they'll add drag.great shot. Clearly the payload wasn't blown to bits as some would suggest. Looks like they very effectively popped the balloon with minimum collateral damage to the payload.
Furthering this...........
The Defense Department put out a statement yesterday about shooting this balloon down. In that statement they also happened to mention that at least three times during "the previous administration", Chinese weather/surveillance balloons were discovered over the U.S. . NO action was taken during those incidents.
Gee, I don't seem to remember a whole lot of panic-stricken media/political hoopla those times. Interesting, no?
s6
Furthering this...........
The Defense Department put out a statement yesterday about shooting this balloon down. In that statement they also happened to mention that at least three times during "the previous administration", Chinese weather/surveillance balloons were discovered over the U.S. . NO action was taken during those incidents.
Gee, I don't seem to remember a whole lot of panic-stricken media/political hoopla those times. Interesting, no?
s6
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