NASA Spends $450 Million for Shuttle Flights; Robert Harrison Uses Weather Balloons, Duct Tape for $750 - ABC News

Gotta admit that is awesome.

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Scorpions - Wind Of Change

Seeing the pics I really couldn't have thought they were made by an amateur photographer... : ^D

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I'm sure that in the UK you can't fly a kite or balloon above 1000 ft due to air traffic regulations??

I think you are right.

Cool pics!

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talk about 1 upping NASA

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I'm sure that in the UK you can't fly a kite or balloon above 1000 ft due to air traffic regulations??

I think you are right.

Cool pics!

Even if this is correct.

How will they

(a) detect a helium balloon, especially if there is no metallic coating on the balloon materials:
(b) Even if they detect the balloon, what can they do about it and how will they link it back to a person?

Just go ahead and do it!!

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

I read the article and he does comply with air traffic regulations so that he doesnt interfere with any air traffic that may be using the airspace over his home and most likely downwind from him

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I'm sure that in the UK you can't fly a kite or balloon above 1000 ft due to air traffic regulations??

I think you are right.

Cool pics!

Even if this is correct.

How will they

(a) detect a helium balloon, especially if there is no metallic coating on the balloon materials:
(b) Even if they detect the balloon, what can they do about it and how will they link it back to a person?

Just go ahead and do it!!

a) when they pick the pieces out of the wreckage and bodies
b) serial number from the camera

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If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

I doubt a physical collison would do much, but if all, or some, balloon/camera components got sucked into an engine... alpha mike foxtrot.

If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

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If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

However, it is not likely you'll have 1000 helium balloons and cameras flying into engines at once, is it? US Airways Flight 1549 was a very rare occurrence...

A 747 can fly stable and get to its destination with 3 engines. And before anyone says it - the 747 CAN fly with asymmetric thrust.

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- Luke.

If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

However, it is not likely you'll have 1000 helium balloons and cameras flying into engines at once, is it? US Airways Flight 1549 was a very rare occurrence...

A 747 can fly stable and get to its destination with 3 engines. And before anyone says it - the 747 CAN fly with asymmetric thrust.

It just takes one bird, not a flock.
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/video/F_16_vs_bird_ejection.wmv

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If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

However, it is not likely you'll have 1000 helium balloons and cameras flying into engines at once, is it? US Airways Flight 1549 was a very rare occurrence...

A 747 can fly stable and get to its destination with 3 engines. And before anyone says it - the 747 CAN fly with asymmetric thrust.

It just takes one bird, not a flock.
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/video/F_16_vs_bird_ejection.wmv

Oh, I'm talking long haul commercial flights. Not military planes (which, self-admittedly, I know nothing about)...

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- Luke.

If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

However, it is not likely you'll have 1000 helium balloons and cameras flying into engines at once, is it? US Airways Flight 1549 was a very rare occurrence...

A 747 can fly stable and get to its destination with 3 engines. And before anyone says it - the 747 CAN fly with asymmetric thrust.

It just takes one bird, not a flock.
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/video/F_16_vs_bird_ejection.wmv

Oh, I'm talking long haul commercial flights. Not military planes (which, self-admittedly, I know nothing about)...

I just watched a show on new commercial jet engines and they have to be able to take a frozen chicken shot into them.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

If you are referring to an aircraft impacting with the balloon and bringing everything down. How come something as flimsy as a helium balloon, with an itsy-bitsy camera, has sufficient weight to scratch (let alone bring down) a long haul passanger aircraft. If it did it wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place.

How heavy is a bird? Only takes enough mass to break one turbine blade and the engine can shake itself apart throwing shrapnel all over the place. Ask Captain Sullenberger.

However, it is not likely you'll have 1000 helium balloons and cameras flying into engines at once, is it? US Airways Flight 1549 was a very rare occurrence...

A 747 can fly stable and get to its destination with 3 engines. And before anyone says it - the 747 CAN fly with asymmetric thrust.

It just takes one bird, not a flock.
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/video/F_16_vs_bird_ejection.wmv

Oh, I'm talking long haul commercial flights. Not military planes (which, self-admittedly, I know nothing about)...

I just watched a show on new commercial jet engines and they have to be able to take a frozen chicken shot into them.

And on the flight's menu: chicken salad sandwiches.

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Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

And on the flight's menu: chicken salad sandwiches.

And on the flight's menu: chicken salad sandwiches.

Chickens don't fly from Philly to SF unless you pay them.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

They thaw the birds first. (Trust me, I've done some of this testing.) And the engines don't have to work afterwords. They just have to blow up in a polite and discrete manner that probably won't threaten the rest of the airplane. It's called "benign failure".

And you can get Air Traffic Control permission to fly balloons and model airplanes and all sorts of fun stuff to ridiculous altitudes, even in the UK. Just takes some knowledge of the government process, a willingness to fill in forms, and patience.

I think the guy in the UK with the balloon is doing great work. It just shows that there are opportunities for doing science at all levels of technology and funding (kinda like SETI). If all you want is pictures from a consumer digital camera, a $750 balloon project makes great sense. For other things, you may need a $450 million space shuttle flight.

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Did it look like this?

Jet engine chicken test

One of the main users of the chicken gun (also known as the chicken cannon or turkey gun) is Pratt & Whitney, the jet engine manufacturer. The "chicken ingestion test," as it's called, is one of a series of stress tests required by the Federal Aviation Administration before a new engine design can be certified. The tests take place in a concrete building large enough to enclose an entire jet engine. With the engine operating at full speed, the cannon uses compressed air to shoot chicken carcasses (or sometimes duck or turkey carcasses) into the turbine at 180 mph (not 500 mph). This is the approximate speed a plane would be traveling if it encountered a bird during takeoff or landing, when most such incidents occur. The chickens are bought not from the corner grocery but from a game farm; the engineers apparently figure that for maximum realism they'd better use birds with feathers. Bird disintegration occurs only after the chick hits the fan. If the turbine disintegrates too, or if the engine can't be operated safely for another twenty minutes after impact, the design fails the test.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!