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Guess that's a hazzard of balloons all over the place. Hope one does not take out a jet.
Jet aircraft are a little more manoeuvrable than power lines.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed they are launched all the time. But, we are talking about the case that the practice becomes popular and the skies become a dense minefield.
That's an interesting back of the envelope question to work out. Something with volume occupied by all aircraft aloft at any given moment, volume of all balloons at any given moment, the total volume of the shell in which commercial air traffic takes place. I think we can safely forget about the chances of spyplanes hitting balloons, the volume of space versus the number of spyplanes would make that a non-issue, even…
5610 million km^3 = 5.61 * 10^3 * 10^6 km^3 = 5.61 * 10^9 km^3 = 5.61 * 10^9 * 10^9 m^3 = 5.61 * 10^18 m^3
But you said the resulting volume was = 5.61 * 10^12 m^3.
I think you forgot that it was 5610 million km^3.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting back of the envelope question to work out. Something with volume occupied by all aircraft aloft at any given moment, volume of all balloons at any given moment, the total volume of the shell in which commercial air traffic takes place. I think we can safely forget about the chances of spyplanes hitting balloons, the volume of space versus the number of spyplanes would make that a non-issue, even…
You lost 6 orders of magnitude to this IMHO: 5610 million km^3 = 5.61 * 10^3 * 10^6 km^3 = 5.61 * 10^9 km^3 = 5.61 * 10^9 * 10^9 m^3 = 5.61 * 10^18 m^3 But you said the resulting volume was = 5.61 * 10^12 m^3. I think you forgot that it was 5610 million km^3.
In the 90s, I would sometimes trip over ethernet cables that had been strung between server racks, across an aisle. Will this be the decade where I get to experience being struck by falling routers and switches, far from any data center? (EDIT: Simply remarking on novelty of problem and upward growth of network. No criticism of any firm implied or intended.)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_hermaphroditic_connect...
The word 'crashes' could easily be substituted with 'drifted into'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed they are launched all the time. But, we are talking about the case that the practice becomes popular and the skies become a dense minefield.
That's an interesting back of the envelope question to work out. Something with volume occupied by all aircraft aloft at any given moment, volume of all balloons at any given moment, the total volume of the shell in which commercial air traffic takes place. I think we can safely forget about the chances of spyplanes hitting balloons, the volume of space versus the number of spyplanes would make that a non-issue, even…
Detours are costly due to time and coordination (air traffic control, other aircraft), and reacting to seeing a balloon and moving the aircraft isn't that easy when you're traveling at 300+ MPH in an aircraft which turns like a cargo ship. And that's assuming you can even see the balloon in time to react in the first place.
And that's just the commercial jetliners. Private jets go higher and faster (about 50,000' and 700mph), while GA aircraft fill the skys below 14,000'.
Granted, this still leaves a lot of room in between these major aircraft corridors, but if a balloon should ever intersect with one of them, it's going to cause havoc, even if there's never an actual balloon/aircraft incident.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jet aircraft are a little more manoeuvrable than power lines.
At the speed your average jet is travelling and the fact that approximately half the traffic is at night I'd hope for a radar transponder on the balloon (or at least some kind of reflector) because I highly doubt you'd be able to respond in time when going on visual cues alone, you'd need at least a few kilometers warning.
