[kiddz]

It seems like the reporting is that two out of three objects are said not to be balloons. I don’t know of any terrestrial technology that can be that large (size of car) aloft for multiple hours/days that hovers. Am I correctly groking the news here?

[idlewords]

No, you're not. The descriptions are consistent with these objects being balloons or dirugibles. The terrestrial technology that can keep a cylinder the size of a car afloat for days is called "hydrogen".

[piloto_ciego]

I don’t think this is correct… a thousand cubic feet of hydrogen is 68lbs of buoyancy at sea level.

A cylinder that was 20’ long, and 5’ in radius (which is a lot bigger than my minivan - would be about 1570 cubic feet.

That could lift about 100lbs at sea level… at flight level 400… that’s going to have to be a huge balloon to lift 100 lbs or the payload has to be tiny tiny - which is possible but I don’t think something the size of a car is adequate.

[idlewords]

Which do you think is the most likely explanation?

1. A lighter than air craft or drone with a small payload

2. A man-made object that uses unknown physics

3. Aliens

I know everyone wants a cooler answer, but I see way too many people being irrational here.

[nl]

> A cylinder that was 20’ long, and 5’ in radius

Your are dramatically underestimating the size of these things:

The Chinese high-altitude balloon shot down over the Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend was 200 feet tall and carried a payload the size of a regional airliner, a U.S. Air Force general said in a briefing on Monday.

The balloon's superstructure and hardware weighed "in excess of a couple thousand pounds," said Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command.

https://www.newsweek.com/china-spy-balloon-size-200-ft-jet-a...

Here's a similar sized one NASA put up a few years ago: https://remus.jpl.nasa.gov/balloon.htm

[reso]

I wouldn't make any conclusions yet given that they haven't recovered the wreckage yet.

That being said, ultralight glider technology is actually really good. It is plausible with ultralight materials you could build a car-sized thing, put it on some kind of solar-powered glider and keep it in the air for a long time.

[alecfreudenberg]

this is what I'm seeing as well.

pilot selection of aim9 over guns due to difficulty/risk of engagement is concerning. would really like recoverable intel, or at least some more detailed assessment prior to engagement.

I'm assuming this information is just not being released, but it begs for obvious scrutiny.

we want a picture

[theteapot]

Car sized balloons. Gliders. "Hover" is conjecture.

[kiddz]

I say hover because the pentagon is saying the same object was seen twice in two days. . . The day before it was in Montana then 24 plus hours later in Michigan.

“A unidentified object has been shot down by U.S. forces over Lake Huron, according to the Department of Defense. The object appears to be the same object that had been detected over Montana a day earlier, said officials.“

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/12/1156428862/us-shoot-down-ufo-...

[idlewords]

"Hover" implies more directional control than a balloon would have, the ability to stay in one spot. So far all the descriptions are consistent with just regular floating.