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Started By
Message
re: Tethered Aerostat Radar Balloon on Hwy 90
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:20 pm to jbgleason
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:20 pm to jbgleason
quote:
One broke away several years ago up in the NE. VA I think.
I forgot about that, I had thought they were all along South. Looking at those that are still active on Google Earth is pretty cool, they are at 18,000 feet or so and you are looking down at the balloon.
0
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:21 pm to jbgleason
quote:
One broke away several years ago up in the NE. VA I think. Was supposed to be “impossible” for it to get loose. Thing was drifting along dragging the cable and tore up all kinds of private property and power lines.
I read on Wiki that they had up to 25,000 feet of cable on them. I would think the cable would have to be around 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. With 2,000 pounds of floating payload dragging it I bet it did quite a lot of damage.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:26 pm to jbgleason
I think that blimp in PA crashed on its own and they used shotguns to deflate it once it was stationary in the woods.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:43 pm to slackster
quote:
I think that blimp in PA crashed on its own and they used shotguns to deflate it once it was stationary in the woods.
That's how it reads in the article. They say that even a rifle shot to one won't bring it down.
Probably tested this theory on the one in Louisiana. I could see some duck hunters taking shots at it.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 7:49 pm to redstick13
They used to do anal probes in that thing. They gave you a bottle of water on the way out though, so overall it wasn’t too bad.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 8:25 pm to redstick13
It was in Glencoe off 83. Drove by it for years.
One of our foremen lived basically across the street from it. He & his wife liked to sit outside naked in their hot tub and made it a point to shoot the bird up at that thing every time he did so.
One of our foremen lived basically across the street from it. He & his wife liked to sit outside naked in their hot tub and made it a point to shoot the bird up at that thing every time he did so.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 8:25 pm to EA6B
quote:
quote: Used for drug interdiction?
All of them but one were for downward looking radar to spot low flying planes coming in over the Gulf of Mexico and the western border area.
One of the two in the Florida Keys is used for TV broadcasting beamed at Cuba, Anti Castro, communism type stuff probably funded by the CIA.
In the early 2000s, there were 2 or 3 on Cudjoe Key, which is near Key West. "Fat Albert" was the name given to the original by locals.
In addition to radar, and broadcasting/jamming, I was told that one or more had cameras similar to those used on U-2s. Supposedly, these cameras could see to, or near, Cuba. If these things go up to ~20,000', I'd imagine that might be high enough to see 80 or 90 miles over the horizon. (Or no. However, I have no doubt the correct answer will be posted shortly.)
Posted on 12/27/17 at 8:43 pm to White Roach
At 20,000 feet the human eye could see around 175 miles if viewing something at MSL.
Distance from Cudjoe Key to Havana is 121 miles. So it was definitely possible.
Distance from Cudjoe Key to Havana is 121 miles. So it was definitely possible.
This post was edited on 12/27/17 at 8:54 pm
Posted on 12/27/17 at 10:02 pm to White Roach
quote:
Used for drug interdiction?
This is what I was always told as a kid. Don't know the legitimacy of that claim.
Posted on 12/27/17 at 10:19 pm to redstick13
quote:
would think the cable would have to be around 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. With 2,000 pounds of floating payload dragging it I bet it did quite a lot of damage.
2 inched at minimum, those cables could have torn through a house with that kind of drag
I had no idea these kind of radar balloons even existed, pretty interesting stuff
This post was edited on 12/27/17 at 10:20 pm
Posted on 12/27/17 at 10:21 pm to redstick13
I remember seeing these in Afghanistan
When the weather would get bad or was changing it would get taken down
Nothing like a dust storm
When the weather would get bad or was changing it would get taken down
Nothing like a dust storm
Posted on 12/27/17 at 10:48 pm to redstick13
Flying out of Lafayette going offshore, every helicopter pilot we had with IHI was sure to stay on the east side of Hwy 90. More than one told similar stories about avoiding the exclusion zone, and what happened a time or two when they didnt. Something about jets flying by and checking them out as well as a stern warning when they landed.
Posted on 12/28/17 at 12:14 am to redstick13
This resembles my nutt sack
Posted on 12/28/17 at 6:06 am to Bustedsack
Your nutt sack has a long string dangling from it?
Posted on 12/28/17 at 6:08 am to lsucoonass
Posted on 12/28/17 at 6:46 am to redstick13
The ones you see overseas are PTDS versions.
Can carry multiple imagery payloads can sustain for 20 days or so before coming down for maintenance for roughly 24 hours
Barring weather
Can carry multiple imagery payloads can sustain for 20 days or so before coming down for maintenance for roughly 24 hours
Barring weather
Posted on 12/28/17 at 7:16 am to CPT Tiger
Found some more interesting airships I never knew existed on Lockheed's website.
LINK
quote:
HIGH ALTITUDE AIRSHIP (HAA®)
The High Altitude Airship is an unmanned, untethered, lighter-than-air vehicle operating autonomously in the stratosphere for sustained, ultra long endurance missions as a stable, geostationary platform suitable for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and communications.
LINK
Posted on 12/28/17 at 9:20 am to redstick13
Sounds like it
But the pictures in the thread match my recollection or description of it
But the pictures in the thread match my recollection or description of it
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