High altitude object shot down
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
A couple of answers to that.
1. At 60K an F-22 will have to be supersonic. To do a gun attack on a static balloon and break away without hitting it would be difficult, far easier just to use a missile. The cost of an AIM-9X is $400K which, in military terms, is an insignificant factor.
2. They wanted to bring down the balloon just as it crossed the coast in shallow waters, which meant the envelope had to to be shredded. Previously attempts to engage balloons with guns had only made holes where the helium slowly leaked ou making it slowly deflate and fly on for hundreds of miles. The AIM-9X has a fragmentation warhead which, as seen, did the job.
1. At 60K an F-22 will have to be supersonic. To do a gun attack on a static balloon and break away without hitting it would be difficult, far easier just to use a missile. The cost of an AIM-9X is $400K which, in military terms, is an insignificant factor.
2. They wanted to bring down the balloon just as it crossed the coast in shallow waters, which meant the envelope had to to be shredded. Previously attempts to engage balloons with guns had only made holes where the helium slowly leaked ou making it slowly deflate and fly on for hundreds of miles. The AIM-9X has a fragmentation warhead which, as seen, did the job.
Hmmm... I'm by no means an expert - although I do own a parachute I've never tried opening it - but I've a nagging suspicion that weight isn't the only determining factor for terminal velocity...
Some experimental evidence
Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
Gosh, what other factor could there be, I wonder ?
Originally Posted by michaelbinary
Just went through some free fall calculators that take into account air resistance, and a 100g object falling at its terminal velocity would be around 8KPH
I dunno, the only property given for this hypothetical projectile was its weight:
I can't be bothered to do this as more than a thought experiment, but I'd hazard a guess that the terminal speed of a 100g dart is rather more than 8km/h. A 100g solid lead sphere will achieve a higher terminal speed than a hollow plastic sphere of the same weight. No idea of the terminal speed of a 100g helium balloon, but at sea level it'll be in the opposite direction...
I can't be bothered to do this as more than a thought experiment, but I'd hazard a guess that the terminal speed of a 100g dart is rather more than 8km/h. A 100g solid lead sphere will achieve a higher terminal speed than a hollow plastic sphere of the same weight. No idea of the terminal speed of a 100g helium balloon, but at sea level it'll be in the opposite direction...
I think our adversaries may be trying to deplete our economy. Two $400k missiles to take down a $50 balloon. That doesn’t include the costs for the aircraft to fly the mission.
The payload apparently dropped free of the balloon when it was struck by the missile, so clearly dropped a lot faster than the balloon itself.
The debris was spread over a wide area, so it probably broke apart in mid air.
For example, I assume the solar panels ripped off before the payload hit the ocean, unless the attachment points were extremely sturdy. The antennas might have ripped off too.
The rate of fall reflects weight and surface area, which is why a feather lands more slowly than a cannonball unless it is in a vacuum. They have a very different terminal velocity.
The debris was spread over a wide area, so it probably broke apart in mid air.
For example, I assume the solar panels ripped off before the payload hit the ocean, unless the attachment points were extremely sturdy. The antennas might have ripped off too.
The rate of fall reflects weight and surface area, which is why a feather lands more slowly than a cannonball unless it is in a vacuum. They have a very different terminal velocity.
D Tel today: Six Russian balloons spotted over Kyiv
There is a roaring northerly over Kiev, so from where were these launched?
E & OE
There is a roaring northerly over Kiev, so from where were these launched?
E & OE
Rather surprises me that people supposedly professionally trained in the subjects of drag and weight and aerial velocity appear to have never heard of Galileo's experiment at the leaning Tower of Pisa - in 1590 or thereabouts.
https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/G...ngTowerOfPisa/
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A missile is still a waste of money (outside of any training budget)... could they just ram the damn thing, or at least fly close enough to burst it with the shock wave?
F22 - $210 million
AIM-9x - $0.4 million
Sorrryyy....but this doesnt make any sense at all....so, from one week to another everyone in every corner of this planet are shooting down balloons...!!???
Now Ukr says it shooted down six of them in a row, and until now no wreckage found at all, like all the others in US, Canada, etc...!!???
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ls-2023-02-15/
My apologies...but theres more than meets the eye here...and, once again the excuse of balloons...USA, Canada, China, Russia, Ukr, Eastern Europe, Japan, ... i give up... until this very moment only the first one was a balloon, The Chinese in US...all the rest only God Knows (or even some other few).
I really cannot understand why people keep doing math, trigonometry, physics...etc...but no, we are not talking about balloons here, period!
Now Ukr says it shooted down six of them in a row, and until now no wreckage found at all, like all the others in US, Canada, etc...!!???
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ls-2023-02-15/
My apologies...but theres more than meets the eye here...and, once again the excuse of balloons...USA, Canada, China, Russia, Ukr, Eastern Europe, Japan, ... i give up... until this very moment only the first one was a balloon, The Chinese in US...all the rest only God Knows (or even some other few).
I really cannot understand why people keep doing math, trigonometry, physics...etc...but no, we are not talking about balloons here, period!
Last edited by JanetFlight; 16th Feb 2023 at 00:26.
Why Janet, what do you think they are. Simple explanation is that everyone upped their surveillance when the Chinese Balloon became public and they are now shooting down objects everywhere that have probably ALWAYS been around, we just didn’t track them.
Doubt it's anything much more complex than that.