Comment by pingou
16 hours ago
Pretty cool, although it's polluting so hopefully it wouldn't become too popular (probably not).
"And because such diminutive payloads don’t pose a danger to aircraft" even though they are small and wouldn't make a plane crash, I can imagine they would cause some damage if they ever enter a jet engine, although that would be unlucky as they would mostly fly higher than aircraft. I also wouldn't like it to fall on my head, but with the solar panels as depicted and the small weight I suppose it could somewhat glide.
It also reminds me of the recent incident where an object (potentially a weather balloon) struck a plane windscreen and caused significant damage to it, as well as injuring one of the flight crew. I don't know if it would cause the same amount of damage given it's size, but hitting any solid object at cruising speed is sure to leave a mark
shouldnt be cruising in the balloon lane then
Balloon doesn't teleport to the balloon lane though
That was a much larger balloon that had sand ballast. The sand was what did the damage
There are thousands of weather balloon starts every day without any damages to airplanes.
It's not factor as long they are not crossing a specific size/weight - jet engines and windows from airplanes are tested to withstand a direct impact.
Yeah, and pico baloons are extremely tiny, often at 10 grams or less, comprising some very thin plastic, some thin wire and tiny PCBs - this is also how they can fly so high for so long.
Lost of types of hail will be much heavier and harder on impact for example.