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coldpudding posted:How bad would it be if you flew into one of those balloons? Pretty bad! One thing you don't get here is the sense of scale, that thing was huge. Funny enough, barrage balloons are basically the opposite of that.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 08:43 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 09:46 |
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London in WW1 had an aerial equivalent of anti-submarine nets, strung between barrage balloons. Not so much to crash into, but to make it too hazardous to bomb specific areas since you’d have to fly above the balloons, making your enormous bomber sputtering through the air at 80 knots an even easier target for the ack-ack guns.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 09:29 |
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Have they released photos of the wreckage and what it was carrying?
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 09:43 |
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PittTheElder posted:Which is pretty astonishing given how much helium that would have taken. That balloon was loving expensive, before it even had a payload attached. For a high altitude unmanned balloon I'd really think hydrogen would be the play. Wild rear end guess, but because helium is ~twice as large as helium, it leaks through the latex envelope a lot slower than hydrogen Although at ~100,000 ft the pressure delta between inside the balloon and outside is probably negligible compared to when it first is inflated at sea level Those balloons look super wonky on the ground, you get the physics dialed way up and it looks like a giant bubble under a sheet, shaped more like you'd expect to see a bubble in a pint of beer
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 10:20 |
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Bondematt posted:Pretty bad! One thing you don't get here is the sense of scale, that thing was huge. yeah DoD cited a 200' diameter in the last briefing, this is roughly to scale:
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 12:33 |
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Mr. Musk, please fly a rocket through the next one, for science.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 12:37 |
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Just saw pics of the wreckage of the 737 in WA. Amazing how the crew survived that.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 13:08 |
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Humphreys posted:Just saw pics of the wreckage of the 737 in WA. Amazing how the crew survived that. loving miracle. Cable Guy fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Feb 7, 2023 |
# ? Feb 7, 2023 13:37 |
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Platystemon posted:Mr. Musk, please fly a rocket through the next one, for science. *Rocket bounces off the balloon and hits Boca Chica, Looney Tunes style*
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 13:47 |
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Cable Guy posted:Jesus... they walked into the hospital 'unscathed' after being transported there. Any landing you walk away from...... Right?? e: I keep imagining that scene from ST Generations where the Enterprise saucer crashes into the ground.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 14:13 |
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Cojawfee posted:Canada tried to shoot down their own balloon a few years ago and bullets didn't do much if at all to it. Shooting a missile and causing an explosion is the easiest way to ensure a big hole gets ripped in the balloon and it falls. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/weather-balloon-canada-china-1.6737831 Both the Canadian and the Royal Airforces failed to take it down with rounds.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 15:27 |
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Hey wait a min hasn't the US been spending billions of dollars on airborne lasers? Slicing up a big balloon sounds like an ideal test case for such a thing.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 15:51 |
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Humphreys posted:Have they released photos of the wreckage and what it was carrying? landed in the ocean but they know exactly where and you can bet your rear end they will be salvaging the debris.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 17:01 |
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slidebite posted:You're talking about the one that ended up going across the Atlantic and finally ended in Russia or Finland? Thanks for posting this; people have been referring to this for awhile, but it's nice to read the facts. Sidebar: I am a little confused as to why being shot with a 20mm cannon was so ineffective. Because you don't slash it with fire, it just pokes two 20mm holes in the balloon, and it turns out that's a slow leak? I do get that they give the balloon so much gas, and that expands as altitude increases. Is the gas in the balloon in equilibrium with air pressure once max altitude is reached?
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 17:20 |
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It's a very, very small overpressure. Like less than 1000 Pa, or about 1% more than atmospheric pressure. Comparable to inflating your car's tire to a reading of 0.15 psi.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 17:24 |
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As the helium leaks out the balloon it will descend into higher air pressure and the holes will shrink. Think of stretching a balloon or sheet of rubber. Then poke holes in it while stretched. Then let go of it. The holes get smaller. That's in essence what's happening as the balloon descends. Remember, at altitude this thing is *massive* - as in high-rise apartment building massive. A bunch of bullet holes, even 20mm, is gently caress all. It's less than mosquito bites on a elephant.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 17:52 |
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Humphreys posted:Have they released photos of the wreckage and what it was carrying? Some preliminary photos, mostly of the envelope. shame on an IGA posted:Navy PAO released some close-ups of the balloon recovery, looks like it was made out of pallet wrap and stage lighting truss
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 18:14 |
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I'd take back (almost) everything negative I've ever said about China if, on most of the sensitive stuff was stamped " BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 7, 2023 |
# ? Feb 7, 2023 19:44 |
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BIG HEADLINE posted:I'd take back (almost) everything negative I've ever said about China if, on most of the sensitive stuff was stamped " All the time I've spent in China over the years (pre-pandemic) does not suggest that Chinese bureaucracy lends itself to intentional humor.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 20:18 |
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Beef Of Ages posted:All the time I've spent in China over the years (pre-pandemic) does not suggest that Chinese bureaucracy lends itself to intentional humor. I know, but it's funny to imagine.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 20:19 |
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BIG HEADLINE posted:I know, but it's funny to imagine. For sure. The unintentional stuff is good, too. Like this one I took at the Panda zoo outside of Chengdu:
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 20:24 |
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Nebakenezzer posted:Thanks for posting this; people have been referring to this for awhile, but it's nice to read the facts. Sagebrush posted:It's a very, very small overpressure. Like less than 1000 Pa, or about 1% more than atmospheric pressure. Comparable to inflating your car's tire to a reading of 0.15 psi. Quoting myself from two years ago in this thread: BalloonFish posted:The big zeppelins had very thin gas bag skins - at most the thickness of a few of sheets of paper laminated together - so the leakage/diffusion rate was quite high. Over the course of a year of regular use a zeppelin would use over 100% of its lifting gas, lost through a combination of diffusion, leakage and deliberate venting.
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 20:43 |
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Speaking of hydrogen: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-clears-hydrogen-powered-airplane-for-first-flight-at-moses-lake/
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 21:54 |
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coldpudding posted:Hey wait a min hasn't the US been spending billions of dollars on airborne lasers? Slicing up a big balloon sounds like an ideal test case for such a thing. They used a brand new off the line 747 for that Airborne Laser and then canceled the program and scrapped the plane with virtually no hours on it
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# ? Feb 7, 2023 23:05 |
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`Nemesis posted:landed in the ocean but they know exactly where and you can bet your rear end they will be salvaging the debris. I think they already announced it landed in relatively shallow water (like 8-9 fathoms) so no problem recovering it. Yeah, it does seem like an airborne laser would be good for ripping up balloons, doesn’t it? Going back to hydrogenchat, one of the problems with balloon-busting that made it so dangerous in WW1 wasn’t the cables or nets, it was that the incendiary ammo required to ignite the gas was only effective out to about 300 meters, and a rickety biplane made out of balsa wood and steel cable isn’t going to like being near a large hydrogen explosion. And before they had incendiary machine gun ammo, people were essentially attaching Roman candles to their planes and firing them at the balloons at ranges closer to 100 meters. Luigi Thirty fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Feb 7, 2023 |
# ? Feb 7, 2023 23:28 |
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FuturePastNow posted:They used a brand new off the line 747 for that Airborne Laser and then canceled the program and scrapped the plane with virtually no hours on it They got to the point where they'd done everything they really needed that platform for. They'd proven the big concepts, and smaller, cheaper lasers could be used going forward.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 00:31 |
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Godholio posted:They got to the point where they'd done everything they really needed that platform for. They'd proven the big concepts, and smaller, cheaper lasers could be used going forward.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 00:40 |
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Serjeant Buzfuz posted:Any landing you walk away from...... Right?? I like the crash of the Cerritos (in a holodeck program) in Lower Decks, mainly for what the saucer does, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIDjdhFou8&t=42s
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 01:00 |
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mobby_6kl posted:Sure but I still want a 747 with a giant freaking laser on it I would even take it without the laser
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 01:00 |
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Godholio posted:They got to the point where they'd done everything they really needed that platform for. They'd proven the big concepts, and smaller, cheaper lasers could be used going forward. Lower the power and rent it out to fly loops around Burning Man or something.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 01:09 |
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mobby_6kl posted:Sure but I still want a 747 with a giant freaking laser on it Also a better option than the current thread title
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 03:20 |
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I know this is likely harder than I can possibly imagine, but what about launching a bunch of weights that are trailing cables or wires to entangle the gondola. I picture some sort of guided rocket that could carry the worth’s and trailing cables. My theory being that it wouldn’t take all that much to overcome the buoyancy provided by the envelope and now you have the whole payload to study and also a valuable chit to negotiate with the PRC.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 04:40 |
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Trailing wires and weights would really gently caress up your missile efficiency, guidance, everything. And China was never expecting to get any of their junk back in the first place.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 05:21 |
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mobby_6kl posted:Sure but I still want a 747 with a giant freaking laser on it Too bad, you'll get an AC-130J with a laser on it and you'll LIKE it, Mister: https://breakingdefense.com/2022/09/afsoc-ac-130j-gunship-to-fire-laser-weapon-in-flight-test-in-2023/
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 06:14 |
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Hermsgervørden posted:I know this is likely harder than I can possibly imagine, but what about launching a bunch of weights that are trailing cables or wires to entangle the gondola. I picture some sort of guided rocket that could carry the worth’s and trailing cables. My theory being that it wouldn’t take all that much to overcome the buoyancy provided by the envelope and now you have the whole payload to study and also a valuable chit to negotiate with the PRC. l m a o 'valuable chit' lmao lol tho to give some credit to this incredibly silly post i do really appreciate the 'first as tragedy; then as farce' angle on reinventing Star Wars except this time aimed at the dastardly, deadly threat of... scary balloons HookedOnChthonics fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Feb 8, 2023 |
# ? Feb 8, 2023 06:18 |
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I've got an idiot friend thats 'JUsT aSKiNg qUEsTIoNS' trying to find any little error in ANY form of media reporting to suggest the US is lying and the Chinese aren't to blame.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 10:16 |
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That's pretty hosed up
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 10:49 |
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How viable is an AC-747 gunship?
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 13:01 |
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More viable than the AC-737-MAX at least.
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 13:32 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 09:46 |
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Terrifying Effigies posted:More viable than the AC-737-MAX at least. Except in the ground attack role
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# ? Feb 8, 2023 13:37 |