Apparently this technique really works. From a blog post this morning: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6551805844525326336 https://www.lin

Apparently this technique really works. From a blog post this morning: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6551805844525326336 https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6551805... Meet flight system P-496, which Loon’s operations team brought to a controlled landing this Sunday in the Ica region of Peru, where it was collected for analysis. This balloon was launched from Puerto Rico way back on November 18, 2018 and spent 223 days in the stratosphere, breaking our previous flight record of 198 days. P-496 traveled over 180,000 kilometers, circled the globe once, and spent nearly 140 days of its mission testing navigational algorithms over a defined area off the coast of South America. This successful flight and landing is important for a number of reasons. Steadily increasing balloon duration means each flight vehicle can work longer, bringing more efficiency to our overall operations. Continuing to improve our ability to remain above one location for extended periods of time is key to providing consistent coverage to those below. Landing and recovering our balloons safely is part of our commitment to sustainability in our operations. And analyzing this and other balloons will help us understand the properties that increase balloon longevity, with an eye toward future flights that last even longer. The team is already working to break the 223 day record.