4 ms·
I'm sure there are, but one issue the F16 pilots noted in radio transcripts from one of the recent shoot downs is that the difference in airspeed between a stat
by giobox 4y ago
I'm sure there are, but one issue the F16 pilots noted in radio transcripts from one of the recent shoot downs is that the difference in airspeed between a stationary or slow moving arial object and the speeds the F16 need to maintain to stay in the air make it surprisingly hard for pilots themselves to accurately describe the objects.
These objects are small, to get a good view requires flying a very fast jet very close to a small relatively stationary object of which you may only get a split second glance.
In the transcript I saw, the two F16 pilots can't really agree if the object they are dealing with is a balloon or not (this wasn't from the first shootdown of the Chinese balloon which was much larger and easier to identify), eventually one pilot just assumes it is as a best guess.
- ianburrell 4y agoThis could explain much what is going on. The later objects have confusing descriptions which make hard to figure out what they were. But they could easily be small to medium balloons with the payload not visible. Spherical becomes cylindrical or octagonal, balloons become floating. This could explain why we haven’t gotten more info from government. They don’t want to admit that shot down weather or scientific balloons. Smaller balloons are likely to not be Chinese. It could also be that government is equally confused and are waiting to find the wreckage.
- DoctorOetker 4y agowhy can't such a spy plane release shell with parachute, to slow down the shell, containing a self-inflating balloon? possibly with some thrusters?