Weather Balloons facts
While investigating facts about Weather Balloons At Night and Weather Balloons Lawn Chair, I found out little known, but curios details like:
During WWII, the British launched nearly 100,000 weather balloons trailing long metal wires toward occupied Europe, causing power outages when they shorted out power lines and causing at least one German power station to burn down.
how weather balloons work?
A Florida man faked his murder by shooting himself with a gun tied to a weather balloon. The gun and balloon were never found.
What weather balloons look like?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what happens to weather balloons. Here are 50 of the best facts about Weather Balloons Susto and Weather Balloons Susto Lyrics I managed to collect.
why do weather balloons pop at high altitudes?
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A Floridian man who committed suicide, and by using a weather balloon to carry off the gun, made it appear he'd been murdered.
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In 1982 a Los Angeles man named Larry Walters used a lawn chair and weather balloons to ascend to 15,000ft above ground. On the way up, he lost both his glasses and his bb gun, which he planned to use to shoot balloons to descend. He caused a 20min power outage, and was fined $1500.
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A group of amateur scientists launched 200 paper airplanes from an elevation of 23 miles with a weather balloon. Launched in Germany, the airplanes flew as far as Canada, Australia, India, and even South Africa.
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Researchers used a weather balloon to carry 200 paper planes 20 miles up from a barn in Wolfsberg, Germany. The planes were released and found in numerous countries, such as Australia, Russia, and India.
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Cleveland once released 1.5 million helium balloons. The weather kept the balloons from dispersing and the resulting chaos ended up costing the city millions in lawsuits and took weeks to clean up.
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Project Mogul was a US Airforce secret project to detect nuclear test acoustically with microphones mounted on high altitude balloons. When one such balloon crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947, they covered it up by saying it was a weather balloon.
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A man tied 45 weather balloons to a lawn chair and packed a gun to shoot himself down. Instead of raising the planned 100 feet he shot up 16,000
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The Battle of Los Angeles occurred in 1942 when a blackout was issued for LA due to a rumored enemy air raid. Thought to be an attacking force from Japan, 1,400 rounds were spent shooting at a weather balloon and the event indirectly killed 5 people.
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The Battle of Los Angeles, in 1942, was a false alarm caused by a lost weather balloon seen hovering above Los Angeles, thought to be an attack from Japan, which triggered a barrage of anti-aircraft artillery.
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There are a group of people who claim the moon doesn't exist. They believe it may be a hologram, or weather balloon painted like the "moon".
Why weather balloons partially inflated before release?
You can easily fact check why helium is used in weather balloons by examining the linked well-known sources.
Twice each day, 800 weather balloons are launched around the world and none have ever collided with an aircraft. - source
About Larry Walters, who in 1982 attached a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair and launched himself into the sky, eventually reaching 16,000 feet. His plan for landing was to pop the balloons with a pellet gun, but he flew into LAX airspace and shut down the airport before he could land. - source
The debris was taken to Ft. Worth, Texas for examination. Major-General Roger Ramey claimed the debris was from a weather balloon.
Weather balloons come in a variety of sizes from 350 grams to as much as 1500 grams. Weather balloons are listed by their weight not their physical size as this varies somewhat.
What happens to weather balloons when they pop?
Heavier weather balloons cost more to launch because more gas must be used.
How high do weather balloons go?
In 1986 Cleveland set a world record by releasing 1.4m balloons. However a change in weather caused the balloons to drop to the ground causing traffic chaos, injured horses and prevented the rescue of two missing fisherman
In March 2011 a team of scientists, engineers & balloon pilots made a Pixar’s 'Up' inspired floating house for Nat Geo. Launching a 16′ X 16′ house 18′ tall with 300 8′ coloured weather balloons (setting a new world record). Reached an altitude of 10,000 feet & flew for 1 hour or so.
Weather balloons can also be used for purposes outside of the weather field including for aviation purposes, monitoring of pollution, video creation, photography, and research.
On 1982, underestimating helium's lifting power, Larry Walters attached 45 helium-filled weather balloons to a chair to fly it and rose to 4600 m near Los Angeles International Airport, before shooting ballons and landing in power lines
A 71 year old man from Palm Beach, Florida tied a gun to a weather balloon, inflated it, then shot himself to death... successfully faking his own murder