Aerostar Balloons
- Thread starter Saint
- Start date
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Nothing unusual
I remember looking at my map display of my local PiAware one day and seeing an aircraft listed at 60,000 feet moving at 2 MPH. What? How could that be? Then the thought came to mind it must be a balloon and sure enough it was but at the time I thought it was unusual.
ind224
Member
I like them and I wish they would come to Indiana more often even if just in transit.
I’ve watched them often, but can’t say I recall seeing them over Indiana.
It was the first time I saw three in the air at the same time, thought I would pass it on.
Steve
Steve
eorange
♦RF Enabled Member♦
I see they are HBAL, which is (was?) the Google loon project.
Google sold it long ago...
flametamer
Member
They still show as being Google/Loon balloons but Google says that project is closed/discontinued?
Dt
flametamer
Member
ind224
Member
Yes, they use the same designator HBAL as the Loon balloons used to but what they are actually doing (still configured for internet?) or possibly doing survey work? Could they be US spy balloons?
On ADS-B Exchange it looks like the operator can set the designator to what they want it to be like most GA have an N number while military have a radio callsign. Yesterday I saw Hawker N70RC running NCC1701 and I laughed....
On ADS-B Exchange it looks like the operator can set the designator to what they want it to be like most GA have an N number while military have a radio callsign. Yesterday I saw Hawker N70RC running NCC1701 and I laughed....
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