Terminal velocity

concours

VIP MEMBER
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
8,540
Country flag
How fast will a 3 school bus long, 9000 lb. object fall through the air? Aluminum chassis, solar panels.
 
A bit of context please.
Have you joined Al Queda?

hmm - maybe 400km/hr (ish)
 
Last edited:
A bit of context please.
Have you joined Al Queda?

hmm - maybe 400km/hr (ish)
Nope.
Quite the contrary.
Terminal velocity
 
Our goverment at it's finest! Let this 'Balloon" drift accross our country spy on the missile silos in the mid west and then allow it to go over our space center at Outer Banks!

If it was only a weather balloon from CHINA! With all our military equipment, couldn't we just grab it and retreive it. They didn't shoot it down because there could be casualities on the ground!
 
Our goverment at it's finest! Let this 'Balloon" drift accross our country spy on the missile silos in the mid west and then allow it to go over our space center at Outer Banks!

If it was only a weather balloon from CHINA! With all our military equipment, couldn't we just grab it and retreive it. They didn't shoot it down because there could be casualities on the ground!
Think of all it COULD be.

A test to feel out their ability to disrupt our power grid...
Our communications....
Little quick blips... to test
 
That thing had been hacked, tracked, disabled and corrupted before it even crossed into Alaska.
Convenient and harmless piece of floating anti-china propaganda by the time it hit the states.
 
Reminds me of the balloons launched by the Japanese in WWII. They were rather ineffective, but did manage to start some forest fires. For the most part, they were a practicality test. Same with these Chinese balloons...... you know there will be more .....

Slick
 
That thing had been hacked, tracked, disabled and corrupted before it even crossed into Alaska.
Convenient and harmless piece of floating anti-china propaganda by the time it hit the states.
I call it a distraction for many..other wise it would have beeen brought down in AK without a word...
 
Terminal velocity depends on aerodynamics...... large frontal area = less velocity.
A spent bullet, after being fired straight up, falls about 300 ft/sec, or about 200 mph. A human in free fall has a terminal velocity of about 120 mph.

Slick
 
You left out ...... a test of our resolve ..... if we are hesitant to shoot down their balloon, what would be our reaction to an invasion of Taiwan?

Slick
I intentionally left that out. 🍻 That is one of the obvious reasons, and may very well be the intent.
But clearly, our defense system was fully lit up by it's presence. And they got to study it.
For an extended period.
 
Just brainstorming here.

Other possible (maybe multi-faceted) mission reasons
 
Back
Top