Check out the pilot patches. No way that's not our Gamecock. I guess they are displaying it in flight on the attack (90 degree turn).So the Fighting Cocks are back!
Have to wonder if those guys in Honolulu know that's our bird on their insignias?
Check out the pilot patches. No way that's not our Gamecock. I guess they are displaying it in flight on the attack (90 degree turn).So the Fighting Cocks are back!
The Raptor from the 149 Fighter Squadron, based at Langley Air Force Base, used a single AIM-9X Sidewinder, fired from 58,000 feet in the air, to shoot down the balloon that was operating at 62,000 feet, a senior military official told reporters on Saturday afternoon.
The remains of the surveillance balloon, about the size of three school buses, is spread over a seven-mile debris field in shallow water in the Atlantic, a senior military official told reporters.
Only American politics and news can make a balloon famous...I see a lot of people on social media complaining about allowing china to export data which is silly. the growlers out of Whidby were jamming the comms as soon as it entered our airspace until it was blown apart.
The question is, what was our government actually doing while the populace was distracted by chinas big balloon?Only American politics and news can make a balloon famous...
Agreed this whole thing was blown out of proportion. Would be interesting to see what kind of surveillance tech they had on this balloon that is not possible with satellites. Not sure that will be made public anytime soon.China has satellites trained on our country 24/7, as we do them. Millions of Americans have Tik-Tok loaded on their phones.
The balloon was nothing but a distraction.
They would shoot them down and it wouldn't take a week while the balloon traveled thousands of miles.Agreed this whole thing was blown out of proportion. Would be interesting to see what kind of surveillance tech they had on this balloon that is not possible with satellites. Not sure that will be made public anytime soon.
And also what would China do if we had balloons like this floating over their country. Probably the same thing.
True - They wouldn't care as mush that it could hit anyone or anything on the ground.They would shoot them down and it wouldn't take a week while the balloon traveled thousands of miles.
This made the local news. Luke AFB is in Phoenix area.![]()
The F-22 that took down China's surveillance balloon used the call sign 'FRANK01' in an homage to a heroic pilot from WWI
Frank Luke, an American fighter pilot, was nicknamed the "Arizona Balloon Buster" after shooting down 14 enemy balloons during World War I.www.businessinsider.com
"Onlookers cheered as the pilots, identified as "FRANK01" and "FRANK02," circled China's spy balloon near Myrtle Beach as it floated over the Atlantic Ocean, waiting until the object was safely away from civilians on the ground to avoid the risk of falling debris.
Not just that, it seems like it had a pretty good payload, who knows what kind of biological weapons it could have had on board?True - They wouldn't care as mush that it could hit anyone or anything on the ground.
The speed of sound in fps at sea level is 1100 feet per second, and the speed of sound in air fps is 1125 feet per second. Also, the speed of sound varies with the elevation, such as the speed of sound in fps at 2000 ft is 1089.23 feet per second, and the speed of sound in fps at 5000 ft is 1016.13. It is because the higher altitude has a lower air temperature and therefore slower speed of sound.
Busted.....So the administration is saying we shot this thing down because at 40k feet it was posing a "potential threat to civilian aircraft" my follow up question would be would we have NOT shot it down if it was at 60k feet like the spy balloon?