Title says it all. I am genuinely curious as to how an individual, or group of individuals could legally take, and hold possession of rogue technological devices violating US airspace, and turn a profit from the salvaged CCP junk.
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Well , like kite fighting, you could glue broken glass to the tether. But still...trying to intersect two floating objects at that altitude with a ton of variables is near impossible. I'd suggest about 20 of them attached to a lawn chair, SCUBA gear, warm clothing and a 30-06 rifle and a box of ammo and hope for the best.
Interesting concept, but the world record for a manned hot air balloon is around 70,000ft. I don't know how high the CCP scrap balloon is, but I would estimate it at 100k ft. altitude.
Besides being illegal for people to fly a balloon that high, I don't think a manned flight would be feasible.
But, that's what this thread is trying to figure out.
“CCP” balloon is floating around 63k feet. Felix Baumgartener jumped from a balloon at 24 mi high or about 130,000’. It’s not illegal to fly a balloon that high. I have a friend who launches small weather balloons w cameras that hit 60-70k feet every so often. Then again, it took Felix a Red Bull endorsement and about 10M to make it happen. Look up the story.
https://twitter.com/rwapodcast/status/1621374590495723522?s=46&t=I7cFpw25NXD9n5K-Aloz3A
Looks like I called it. They used a Raptor. No GG guns, but a Sidewinder did the trick. The variant being an AIM-9X which has laser lock-on-target guidance. All the pilot had to do was target the balloon with his helmet and release. The laser means it locks on a target and thrust vectoring guides in the missile. I would call the post above "busted" (Mythbusters).
Interesting. I'm not sure I buy it in totality. The F22 Raptor has a known ceiling of 60,000 feet. It can probably push 70k. While the balloon (it is not an aerostat, those are tethered) may present a minimal infrared signature due to lack of an engine, they are usually constructed out of a type of mylar, which will reflect radar. So a radar based system will see it if it is painted with a signal. Additionally, the F22 is equipped with a M61A1 20mm Gatling gun. I'm pretty confident that it would rip a balloon to shreds easily.