F-16 Balloon kill markings?

[Murph]

13 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

I guessing photoshop.  Kill markings are usually on the left side of the aircraft, and the photo isn’t reversed since the 007 next to the slime light is correctly oriented.  Plus, unlikely that a kill mark would be bright white on a F-22.

 

It's photoshop. 

 

Regards,

Murph

[Cat Barf]

[phantom]

Weather balloon, or a test to see the NORAD reaction? My uneducated guess which counts as much as anyone else guess, without proof........ This was a test to see if launching a balloon with a EMP weapon is feasible should we go to war.

[Scott Smith]

Hey, I just hope this lights a fire under someone to finally produce a 1/32 F-22.  (And not the YF-22) Wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Trumpeter or Hobby Boss? 

[Bsin]

Can we get a 1/48th scale model of this baloon?  🎈LOL 

[Scott Smith]

18 minutes ago, Bsin said:

Can we get a 1/48th scale model of this baloon?  🎈LOL 

Already available in all scales. Just go to a local party supply or Walmart and buy a white balloon and inflate to desired scale! 

[Bsin]

5 minutes ago, Scott Smith said:

Already available in all scales. Just go to a local party supply or Walmart and buy a white balloon and inflate to desired scale! 

Ha!

[Bsin]

1 hour ago, Scott Smith said:

Already available in all scales. Just go to a local party supply or Walmart and buy a white balloon and inflate to desired scale! 

 But then I have to scratch build the instrument package, that was suspended  underneath the balloon!

Edited February 6, 2023 by Bsin

[Dave Williams]

2 hours ago, Scott Smith said:

Hey, I just hope this lights a fire under someone to finally produce a 1/32 F-22.  (And not the YF-22) Wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Trumpeter or Hobby Boss? 

Not 1/32, but Trumpeter already makes a 1/48 F-22 under their I Love Kit label.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/i-love-kit-62801-f-22a-raptor--1378584

 

Pretty sure that they won’t release one with ballon kill markings, though.

[Da SWO]

FWIW-USNI says the pilot was a Guard guy.

Yee Ha!

[Gwen Phoenix]

Funny how politics go according to the different bias; (populist) government down here affirm that the US just exaggerated with shooting down a ballon which purposes were solely civil/scientific  The very same was said by the Chinese, so no way the Argentinean puppet president was going to say otherwise. 

The US (liberal/capitalist) government stated that the ballon, which purposes were merely snooping on strategic assets, and also that it was a threat to airspace, with which I wholly concur.

Now, why don't the US return the courtesy to the Chinese? What will the Chinese say about that?

One of my noob queries: is it true that the Chinese ballon could change its path at will, disregarding the direction of the wind? Strange how the path shows the balon travelling in one direction when it approaches America, to then change path along the whole Alaskan territory, then down Canada and all across the US. 

Or was it just the lucky whims of the wind?

Cheers,

 

Gwen 

[GreyGhost]

All of the talk of balloons reminded me of this ...

 

-Gregg

[Gwen Phoenix]

Gregg, how have you been?

I recall Charlize Theron in a film bashing up several guys terribly to the sound of this tune? It was so bizarre... 

Cheers,

 

Gwen 

[DarkKnight]

1 hour ago, Gwen Phoenix said:

Funny how politics go according to the different bias; (populist) government down here affirm that the US just exaggerated with shooting down a ballon which purposes were solely civil/scientific  The very same was said by the Chinese, so no way the Argentinean puppet president was going to say otherwise. 

The US (liberal/capitalist) government stated that the ballon, which purposes were merely snooping on strategic assets, and also that it was a threat to airspace, with which I wholly concur.

Now, why don't the US return the courtesy to the Chinese? What will the Chinese say about that?

One of my noob queries: is it true that the Chinese ballon could change its path at will, disregarding the direction of the wind? Strange how the path shows the balon travelling in one direction when it approaches America, to then change path along the whole Alaskan territory, then down Canada and all across the US. 

Or was it just the lucky whims of the wind?

Cheers,

 

Gwen 

Balloon described as maneuverable, more than just weather balloon, our government probably never tell us the truth about it

 

[Scott Smith]

Gwen, 

Its really hard to say since just last week we had a front dip down from Canada all the way into Texas and across into the Carolinas. Kind of the same path the balloon took. 

[Crash Test Dummy]

4 hours ago, Gwen Phoenix said:

One of my noob queries: is it true that the Chinese ballon could change its path at will, disregarding the direction of the wind? Strange how the path shows the balon travelling in one direction when it approaches America, to then change path along the whole Alaskan territory, then down Canada and all across the US. 

Or was it just the lucky whims of the wind?

The balloon followed the typical high altitude winter wind pattern over North America. Balloons, including this one, have no ability to control their direction and only go where the wind blows, but the wind doesn't necessarily blow in the same direction at all altitudes.  The only ability to maneuver that a balloon has is by changing their altitude to find winds favoring the direction they want to go.  

 

Google's Loon ISP service functioned this way.  They basically stuck cell phone antennas in balloons that would "hover" over an area by changing altitudes to find winds to keep them in their service region. 

[Tailspin Turtle]

12 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

The only ability to maneuver that a balloon has is by changing their altitude to find winds favoring the direction they want to go.  

 

That's what I thought too, but then I Googled it: https://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1972/HMN-19720916.htm

[KursadA]

The wreckage of the payload should be retrieved and be on its way to Sandia real soon, so we will find out what they were after. I am not sure how much of it will be revealed to the public, but any payload that big ("three school buses" is one description I have seen) should have some interesting technology in it.

[Niels]

The three busses-reference was the baloon itself, not the equipment hanging beneath it  

[Scott Smith]

It was kind of cool seeing it from my front yard. I’d post pics, but how many more times do we need to see a blue sky with a tiny white dot posted? 

[Crash Test Dummy]

1 hour ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

That's what I thought too, but then I Googled it: https://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1972/HMN-19720916.htm

😀Of course, you'd find the one experimental powered balloon project from 50 years ago, way to feed the conspiracy nuts. 👽  The rednecks from my hometown in Missouri were melting down over this one, because they could literally see it from their backyard. They were torn between shoot it down or it's full of biological weapons so don't shoot it down. My Facebook feed was nuts for a couple days.

 

I ran across a RAND Corporation report discussing high altitude airships and the powered balloon concept isn't mentioned, but the report does describe another system (pg 47). Suspend a wing and rudder 15 km below the balloon envelope and the difference in wind speed gives you energy to work with, the wing can now act like a sail and provide limited steering.

 

I'm honestly surprised I've never heard of the powered balloon program before, but doing a little Googling, I can find no indication this project ever continued beyond the one program or even the one flight. It's certainly didn't become common. And, there's no indication the Chinese balloon was equipped with such a system.  I still think it was limited to altitude changes for maneuvering.

[Dave Williams]

2 hours ago, KursadA said:

The wreckage of the payload should be retrieved and be on its way to Sandia real soon, so we will find out what they were after. I am not sure how much of it will be revealed to the public, but any payload that big ("three school buses" is one description I have seen) should have some interesting technology in it.

Maybe, but chances are very high that the payload broke apart into many pieces, which is going to have to be sorted out from the other assorted junk laying on the ocean bottom that they are going to also find.  Plus, I’d be very surprised if the payload didn’t have self-destruct charges that went off.

[Dave Williams]

1 hour ago, Niels said:

The three busses-reference was the baloon itself, not the equipment hanging beneath it  

I’m pretty sure that the balloon was much, much bigger than three busses.  Because of the low air pressure at altitude, those type of balloons expand to a massive size.

[KursadA]

I think ABC News said it was the payload section that was that big:

 

Quote

Divers were expected to be working to retrieve other parts of the balloon's payload assembly -- estimated to be the size of three buses -- that likely sunk to the bottom in about 45 feet of water in the area.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/navy-releases-close-photos-chinese-surveillance-balloon-recovery/story?id=96950346

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

2 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

I’m pretty sure that the balloon was much, much bigger than three busses.  Because of the low air pressure at altitude, those type of balloons expand to a massive size.

One report I read had the balloon envelope covering 5 football fields with the span of the payload (mainly solar panels) being the 3 school buses.