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Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over U.S.

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Old 02-04-2023, 09:28 AM
  #11  
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Could be Chinese junk they're floating to bait us. We schwack it, they have an excuse to move against Taiwan...world chess, never simple.
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Old 02-04-2023, 10:27 AM
  #12  
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Originally Posted by TransWorld View Post
Steering implies some sort of controls. Just like a glider has controls.
Does up and down count? 😂 Google didn't seem to have major problems putting the balloons where they wanted them. Of course, that was Google, not China.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210222-how-googles-hot-air-balloon-surprised-its-creators

I haven't really researched them, but it looks like more steerable balloons (thrust vectoring) aren't unprecedented.

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Old 02-04-2023, 10:39 AM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Beech Dude View Post
Could be Chinese junk they're floating to bait us. We schwack it, they have an excuse to move against Taiwan...world chess, never simple.
They GOT to schwack it. Just a matter of where.
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Old 02-04-2023, 12:08 PM
  #14  
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🎈🎈🎈🎈more kills, and he’ll be an ace. He will be the first kid on his block to be an ace for 5 balloon kills.
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Old 02-04-2023, 12:23 PM
  #15  
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Weapon school bubbas will need to add how to kill balloons to their TTPs now. Can you imagine the callsign this guy is going to get for this? I would not want to be him.
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Old 02-04-2023, 12:35 PM
  #16  
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If they still had an operable SR-71 a close flyby at Mach 3.5 would probably rip the balloon envelope to shreds.
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Old 02-04-2023, 03:45 PM
  #17  
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Originally Posted by SonicFlyer View Post
How do we know this isn't the US government simply launching this thing themselves in order to have an excuse to stir people up against China?
You out did yourself with this one.
Closer to supersonic than most of them. Mach tuck territory.
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Old 02-04-2023, 04:57 PM
  #18  
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Originally Posted by MaxQ View Post
You out did yourself with this one.
Closer to supersonic than most of them. Mach tuck territory.
Originally Posted by METO Guido View Post
Oh yeah. They issued diplomatic apologies for losing control of a wx balloon the US launched in a misinformation scheme.
https://youtu.be/Q3a5xsAfass
Yes, my comment was before I knew that the Chinese government claimed the balloon.
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Old 02-04-2023, 06:05 PM
  #19  
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Originally Posted by SonicFlyer View Post
Yes, my comment was before I knew that the Chinese government claimed the balloon.
How do you know that Chinese claim is not a U.S. Plant? Or that statement is not a Chinese plant of the US Plant? Or that chemtrails are not real?
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Old 02-04-2023, 08:21 PM
  #20  
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So does the F-22 pilot who shot the balloon down get to paint some kind of balloon kill symbol on his jet?
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