2 ms·
This part caught my eye. These objects include birds, balloons, recreational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or airborne debris like plastic bags
by JohnBooty 5y ago
This part caught my eye.
These objects include birds, balloons, recreational
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or airborne debris
like plastic bags
It never occurred to me how utterly "alien" a wind-borne plastic bag's behavior might seem on radar.
A constantly shifting radar cross section, sudden directional changes no "actual" flying craft could manage, etc. After all it's an object with significant surface area but nearly zero mass being buffeted around in a region of the atmosphere with swirling wind currents.
Depending on the angle, the radar cross-section of a modern stealthy aircraft is reportedly about the same as a small bird or even a bumblebee. So the radar cross section of an airborne plastic bag or balloon would be pretty similar.
That said, I think the visual reports and videos from military aviators are pretty clearly describing something else.
- krferriter 5y agoVisual experiences are often misleading especially at thousands of feet of altitude and in the ocean where reference objects for judging scale and distance are scarce. The military, and airlines and flight schools generally, explicitly train people about how visual perception can easily be flawed or mislead by normal/everyday things with non-interesting explanations.