Even if it can attributed to a "civilian" company, China is not a free country under Xi Jin Ping's rule. The CCP has many mechanisms to control the Chinese private sector as an arm of the state.
Xi Jin Ping exercises more control over Chinese society than Stalin could have dreamed of in the Soviet Union, with the various coercive systems put into place in the last few decades.
This is a bit absurd, xi absolutely wouldn't be able to go ahead with purges similar to those of Stalin in 1937, even if he wanted to. He simply doesn't have the authority to do so. The chinese politburo is a much much more complicated beast than the usual stereotype of a powerless puppet of an all powerful dictator, that tons of people in the west seem to think it is.
Let's not forget that Xi just publicly purged any remaining factions in the politburo that could have opposed him. Xi has more power in China than Mao ever had. Even under Mao, it took years before opposition factions had the ability to end the cultural revolution. Xi could easily crush any opposition to his rule, and already has. There's no need for a cultural revolution or a mass assassination campaign, he's already won. There is no opposition faction of any significant size.
And Chinese society is actively being sculpted using modern propaganda techniques on social media to be hyper nationalistic and hate the US/west. This is far more powerful than what Stalin ever had at his disposal.
It works much the same in the US, both related to secret control of major industry (see FAA702 etc) and "various coercive systems" enabled by the IC's surveillance and offensive tools.
Possibly but I could see a university or research organization constructing this. “Civilian” is a broad umbrella. My hunch is it’s not though and the Chinese got embarrassed.
This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists
The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
> This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists.
There are almost certainly much better pictures. This is just the pilot's selfie. The U-2 is built to take pictures. USAF: "The U-2 is capable of gathering a variety of imagery, including multi-spectral electro-optic, infrared, and synthetic aperture radar products which can be stored or sent to ground exploitation centers. In addition, it also supports high-resolution, broad-area synoptic coverage provided by the optical bar camera producing traditional film products which are developed and analyzed after landing. The U-2 also carries a signals intelligence payload."
> The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
Additionally, flying high requires flying fast, generally.
The U2's huge wingspan allows it to fly much slower at these altitudes, and with much more ease and efficiency than say, an F-15 or F-22 as some other commenters have suggested being capable of shadowing the balloon at FL600+.
The F-22 service ceiling is 60,000 ft so it can get up there too. The U2, however, flies relatively slow (< 400 kn) at that altitude so is ideal for an up-close inspection.
I would think that the U2 internal cameras were designed for a long focal length and for objects below the aircraft. I wonder if they made modifications for balloon photos.
The U2 contains a far more advanced sensor suite than just cameras. With something like this balloon I suspect the signals intelligence is at least as interesting as any visual reconnaissance.
> When the U.S. government learned of Powers's disappearance over the Soviet Union, they lied that a "weather plane" had strayed off course after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen equipment". What CIA officials did not realize was that the plane crashed almost fully intact and that the Soviets had recovered its pilot and the plane's equipment, including its top-secret high-altitude camera.
That was a specialty pre-production version of the F15 that was modified to do basically just altitude and speed records. It never entered operational service.
The service ceiling is published as FL650. That’s defined as being able to sustain a 100fpm climb, so the absolute level flight ceiling is somewhat higher than that. Service ceiling figure is not in a zoom climb.
It would easily suffice to engage a balloon at FL600.
the venerable english electric lightning (RAF) intercepted a u2 at 66k feet during a nato exercise under full control. it also made it to 86K feet, but that was a zoom climb, and the pilot seems to have found the experience rather scary.
It's an interesting plane to use when considering the USSR shot down a U-2 in 1960. This history even rhymes: the US initially claimed the U-2 was a weather device like China did with this balloon.
