6 ms·

Has anyone seen a better photo of the balloon?

by arriu 4y ago

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
This article has the best we'll probably ever get to see: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-the-chinese-spy-balloons-massive-payload https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-t...
- jxf 4y ago
  That setup is wild. It's pretty ridiculous to claim this was a civilian balloon.
  - hokumguru 4y ago
    This one most assuredly was not, but some of the other objects they've shot down recently are plausible.
    - mupuff1234 4y ago
      I don't think the others were/are claimed to be spy ballons.
  - nemo44x 4y ago
    Possibly but I could see a university or research organization constructing this. “Civilian” is a broad umbrella. My hunch is it’s not though and the Chinese got embarrassed.
  - beebmam 4y ago
    Even if it can attributed to a "civilian" company, China is not a free country under Xi Jin Ping's rule. The CCP has many mechanisms to control the Chinese private sector as an arm of the state. Xi Jin Ping exercises more control over Chinese society than Stalin could have dreamed of in the Soviet Union, with the various coercive systems put into place in the last few decades.
    - sneak 4y ago
      It works much the same in the US, both related to secret control of major industry (see FAA702 etc) and "various coercive systems" enabled by the IC's surveillance and offensive tools.
    - mardifoufs 4y ago
      This is a bit absurd, xi absolutely wouldn't be able to go ahead with purges similar to those of Stalin in 1937, even if he wanted to. He simply doesn't have the authority to do so. The chinese politburo is a much much more complicated beast than the usual stereotype of a powerless puppet of an all powerful dictator, that tons of people in the west seem to think it is.
      - beebmam 4y ago
        Let's not forget that Xi just publicly purged any remaining factions in the politburo that could have opposed him. Xi has more power in China than Mao ever had. Even under Mao, it took years before opposition factions had the ability to end the cultural revolution. Xi could easily crush any opposition to his rule, and already has. There's no need for a cultural revolution or a mass assassination campaign, he's already won. There is no opposition faction of any significant size. And Chinese society is actively being sculpted using modern propaganda techniques on social media to be hyper nationalistic and hate the US/west. This is far more powerful than what Stalin ever had at his disposal.
- themodelplumber 4y ago
  It was pretty surprising to see the four propeller hubs identified from the photo. This balloon seems like one hell of an interesting platform in its way; hope we see some really good infographics soon.
cgb223 4y ago
This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  > Although points for style shooting down a spy balloon with a spy plane An F-22 was used for the shoot down.
  - pantalaimon 4y ago
    That used an air-to-air missile, it didn’t have to get to the same level for that
- sokoloff 4y ago
  The F-15 can regularly climb over FL600 and, under special conditions, has exceeded 100K above MSL.
  - Manuel_D 4y ago
    In level flight or in a zoom climb? It's one thing to build up speed and pitch up in an ballistic arc, it's another thing to fly level at altitude.
    - sokoloff 4y ago
      The service ceiling is published as FL650. That’s defined as being able to sustain a 100fpm climb, so the absolute level flight ceiling is somewhat higher than that. Service ceiling figure is not in a zoom climb. It would easily suffice to engage a balloon at FL600.
    - zabzonk 4y ago
      the venerable english electric lightning (RAF) intercepted a u2 at 66k feet during a nato exercise under full control. it also made it to 86K feet, but that was a zoom climb, and the pilot seems to have found the experience rather scary.
wazer5 4y ago
Another, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/U-2_Pilot_over_Central_Continental_United_States_%287644960%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/U-2_Pilo...
- dylan604 4y ago
  See, we could have used balloons to launch the ISS instead of the shuttle program!
- c7DJTLrn 4y ago
  I don't know why but thinking of a balloon of that size scares me. Megalophobia?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Has anyone seen a better photo of the balloon?

by arriu 4y ago

Has anyone seen a better photo of the balloon?

This article has the best we'll probably ever get to see: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-the-chinese-spy-balloons-massive-payload https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-t...

jxf 4y ago
That setup is wild. It's pretty ridiculous to claim this was a civilian balloon.
- hokumguru 4y ago
  This one most assuredly was not, but some of the other objects they've shot down recently are plausible.
  - mupuff1234 4y ago
    I don't think the others were/are claimed to be spy ballons.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  Possibly but I could see a university or research organization constructing this. “Civilian” is a broad umbrella. My hunch is it’s not though and the Chinese got embarrassed.
- beebmam 4y ago
  Even if it can attributed to a "civilian" company, China is not a free country under Xi Jin Ping's rule. The CCP has many mechanisms to control the Chinese private sector as an arm of the state. Xi Jin Ping exercises more control over Chinese society than Stalin could have dreamed of in the Soviet Union, with the various coercive systems put into place in the last few decades.
  - sneak 4y ago
    It works much the same in the US, both related to secret control of major industry (see FAA702 etc) and "various coercive systems" enabled by the IC's surveillance and offensive tools.
  - mardifoufs 4y ago
    This is a bit absurd, xi absolutely wouldn't be able to go ahead with purges similar to those of Stalin in 1937, even if he wanted to. He simply doesn't have the authority to do so. The chinese politburo is a much much more complicated beast than the usual stereotype of a powerless puppet of an all powerful dictator, that tons of people in the west seem to think it is.
    - beebmam 4y ago
      Let's not forget that Xi just publicly purged any remaining factions in the politburo that could have opposed him. Xi has more power in China than Mao ever had. Even under Mao, it took years before opposition factions had the ability to end the cultural revolution. Xi could easily crush any opposition to his rule, and already has. There's no need for a cultural revolution or a mass assassination campaign, he's already won. There is no opposition faction of any significant size. And Chinese society is actively being sculpted using modern propaganda techniques on social media to be hyper nationalistic and hate the US/west. This is far more powerful than what Stalin ever had at his disposal.
themodelplumber 4y ago
It was pretty surprising to see the four propeller hubs identified from the photo. This balloon seems like one hell of an interesting platform in its way; hope we see some really good infographics soon.

cgb223 4y ago

This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time

ceejayoz 4y ago
> Although points for style shooting down a spy balloon with a spy plane An F-22 was used for the shoot down.
- pantalaimon 4y ago
  That used an air-to-air missile, it didn’t have to get to the same level for that
sokoloff 4y ago
The F-15 can regularly climb over FL600 and, under special conditions, has exceeded 100K above MSL.
- Manuel_D 4y ago
  In level flight or in a zoom climb? It's one thing to build up speed and pitch up in an ballistic arc, it's another thing to fly level at altitude.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    The service ceiling is published as FL650. That’s defined as being able to sustain a 100fpm climb, so the absolute level flight ceiling is somewhat higher than that. Service ceiling figure is not in a zoom climb. It would easily suffice to engage a balloon at FL600.
  - zabzonk 4y ago
    the venerable english electric lightning (RAF) intercepted a u2 at 66k feet during a nato exercise under full control. it also made it to 86K feet, but that was a zoom climb, and the pilot seems to have found the experience rather scary.

wazer5 4y ago

Another, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/U-2_Pilot_over_Central_Continental_United_States_%287644960%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/U-2_Pilo...

dylan604 4y ago
See, we could have used balloons to launch the ISS instead of the shuttle program!
c7DJTLrn 4y ago
I don't know why but thinking of a balloon of that size scares me. Megalophobia?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]