Pentagon Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Over the US

[indyblue]

Hydrogen is flammable. Helium is not.

The problem with helium is that it is becoming very rare and global supply is low. Helium cannot be "made" in the traditional sense, it takes time as it is the product of nuclear decay. Helium is the only element on the planet that is a completely nonrenewable resource, helium physically disappears from the planet. It's the one element out of the entire periodic table that escapes the Earth and goes out into outer space.

 

[Ark]

Reports are the balloon has been shot down.

Anyone else feel like this is way too little too late?

Reminds me of Uvalde in a way. Stand around with your d*** in your hand watching until its too late.

Should have been neutralized in MT when it entered, BEFORE it did its thing, not AFTER its done doing its thing.

And you cant tell me it was safer to shoot it down in SC than it was in MT. The only place safer than MT was off the coast. And it doesnt appear it got that far.

This whole affair is so embarrassing. Should have never been allowed to enter US airspace. Days and days of time and millions of dollars in jet fuel and labor for what is probably the tech equivalent of an iPhone taped to a weather balloon.

We're not a serious country. We're no longer capable of making the most basic decisions and taking the most basic and obvious defensive actions without committee after committee of useless people arguing about it.

 

[Sylvain]

Where was it shot down and where is it falling?

 

[Tombs]

Does this count as one of his 5 enemy kills to reach "Ace" status?

I'd assume it would, kills don't require the death of a pilot to count.

 

[JCSR]

Where was it shot down and where is it falling?

Over the Atlantic off the South Carolina coast.

 

[Sylvain]

Over the Atlantic off the South Carolina coast.

Maybe they can spy on the depth of the ocean now.

 

[JCSR]

Maybe they can spy on the depth of the ocean now.

A ship was sent out to retrieve what's left of it.

 

[Sylvain]

A ship was sent out to retrieve what's left of it.

Thanks, that was my next question.

Hopefully they can still figure out what it was exactly and share intel with other countries.

 

[DragonGunner]

Folks on beach waiting for parts of balloon to float in to sell on eBay. Reported Navy won’t pick up any ballon material.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Serious note: somewhere some poor Enlisted troop is searching for the last time there was a "balloon kill." We talkin Eddie Rickenbacker or someone from WWI? I'm thinking so. Part of the Red Baron's 80 aerial victories were airships, is he #1 all-time?

Now as far as the flightsuit wearing type who got cleared hot: new callsign? "Balloon Killer" would be awesome. Most are one word, but I knew an Eagle Driver whose callsign was Stevie Ray so there is hope for Balloon Killer.

 

[BugI02]

How do we look internationally after waiting to let this spy balloon do it's job and only then shooting it down?

People are still laughing about the rout from Afghanistan, complete with abandoned equipment and airbase

I doubt they notice

 

[BugI02]

Is there a Crew Chief painting a balloon on the aircraft that shot it down right now? If not, why not?

Why not a silhouette of Pelosi, instead? Nothing says 'communist gas bag' like a picture of Nancy

 

[BugI02]

Serious note: somewhere some poor Enlisted troop is searching for the last time there was a "balloon kill." We talkin Eddie Rickenbacker or someone from WWI?

Nunh unh! Roswell 1947, Mac Brazel's place

 

[Wolfhound]

Goodnight sky, goodnight moon, goodnight Chinese spy balloon.

 

[Gunmetalgray]

How do we look internationally after waiting to let this spy balloon do it's job and only then shooting it down?

Yea. But no different than the last couple of years, eh?

 

[Sylvain]

Serious note: somewhere some poor Enlisted troop is searching for the last time there was a "balloon kill." We talkin Eddie Rickenbacker or someone from WWI? I'm thinking so. Part of the Red Baron's 80 aerial victories were airships, is he #1 all-time?

Now as far as the flightsuit wearing type who got cleared hot: new callsign? "Balloon Killer" would be awesome. Most are one word, but I knew an Eagle Driver whose callsign was Stevie Ray so there is hope for Balloon Killer.

Both the Allied and the Germans used several kind of balloons (barrage balloons and incendiary balloons) during WW2.

I assume the last time a pilot shot a balloon was in 1945.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

 

[Sylvain]

So there is still a similar balloon reported over South America somewhere?

 

[Brad69]

So us or the Canadians could have shot it down over the west coast.

But we waited until it went over the entire North American continent ?

I feel our current National leadership may not be the smartest?

 

[BigMoose]

Is this thing going to fly over Indiana???

I'm surprised there not already an INGO crowd founding to rent a freakin' helicopter.

Not sure about the legally of private citizens shooting that thing down ...

Does the FAA consider a balloon like that to be an aircraft?

I guess you could use the Alec Baldwin defense and say your gun "just went off" while cleaning it inside your helicopter ... while flying next to a giant balloon.

Some of us tried to get the Indiana based, and privately owned F-100 in Fort Wayne to sortie and take it down...

No luck..