Spy Balloon - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Spy Balloon

Chinese Spy Balloon Over Montana

Chinese Spy Craft Route

 Spy Balloon Shot Down over the Atlantic

All the hullabaloo about the Chinese spy balloon flying over the US that was finally shot down over the Atlantic Ocean reminded me as a kid on the family farm when Dad and I discovered a large deflated balloon that had landed in one of our fields. It was about 4 feet in diameter with a small instrument of some sort dangling from a cord attached to the balloon.

There was a message on the device that read if found return postage prepaid to the National Weather Service in Washington, DC. Had it not been postage pre-paid, I’m sure Dad would have trashed it, but not before I opened up the gadget to see how it worked. There was no indication of where the balloon originated, but obviously it had to be somewhere out west as that's the direction of the prevailing wind. 

Checking the internet, it turns out the Weather Service had launched over 50 weather balloons from Illinois during that period. I do recall writing a report about the weather balloon discovery for my science class. Turns out the device was called a radiosonde and the instrument looked like this on the inside.

Social media had a field day as the spy craft traversed the nation at 70 mph and an altitude of 66,000 feet. Here’s a sampling:

 Spoof video of private plane flying by the Chinese spy balloon

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