Dusseldorf One spy, three false alarms? The US intelligence services are said to be assuming that three of the four aircraft shot down over North America are of civilian origin.
It “might just be balloons that have a commercial or benign purpose,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. That is currently the main thesis.
The mysterious flying objects have been causing a stir for days. In early February, a suspected Chinese spy balloon was transiting the United States before being shot down by the US Air Force off the coast of South Carolina. Less than a week later, three more previously unidentified objects were spotted over the US and Canada and brought down by fighter jets.
This may have been a drastic reaction to a phenomenon that has so far attracted little interest: in the USA alone, 366 flight phenomena have been observed in the past year and a half that could not be identified. 163 were classified as balloons, 26 as drones, with more than 170 missing explanations.
The Handelsblatt asked companies and research institutes who or what could be flying around at great heights and what the challenges are.
Remote explorer flies with weather balloons
China still claims its balloon is a research balloon designed to study weather phenomena. Remote sensing expert Felix Friedl-Vallon is someone who uses such balloons. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), he researches the composition, chemistry and dynamics of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, which begins at an altitude of twelve kilometers. “This middle layer of the atmosphere plays a key role in climate change,” says the researcher.
What he immediately wants to record on the phone: his balloons are always registered and transmit their data to air traffic control. He has also flown over Canada. The sparsely populated area is predestined for research flights.
Why researchers use balloons and how they are navigated
Friedl-Vallon does not build its own balloons. Such flights are organized by a few state space agencies and the first private providers. For this purpose, the KIT works together with the French space agency CNES. This conveys a seat on a balloon made by the French machine builder CNIM.
Navigating the balloons is a challenge, says Friedl-Vallon. To do this, you first need a good weather model that shows where there are air currents that go east, for example. The researcher explains that this has to be achieved via the flight altitude: “We have ballast with us that you can throw off, then the balloon rises a bit.” The balloon can be lowered by remotely opening valves that allow the gas to escape permit.
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The landing process sounds spectacular. To do this, the balloon is “bumped” into an uninhabited area. There, the cables connecting the balloon to the payload would be blown up. “The payload descends on parachutes and the balloon ruptures, loses gas and also falls to the ground.”
Internet balloons failed, zeppelins in development
CNIM is currently working on being able to better control its balloons, which fly at an altitude of 18 to 20 kilometers, from the ground. Google is a pioneer here, says Friedl-Vallon. For more than nine years, the US company had pursued the idea of using stratospheric balloons as mobile radio masts to supply the world with the Internet. “Google managed to keep its balloons more or less in one place for several months,” says the researcher.
The zeppelin could make a comeback in the stratosphere.
(Photo: Thales Group)
Zeppelin-like flying objects that are currently being developed in France and the USA could also be more manoeuvrable. The French technology group Thales and the Italian-French space company Thales Alenia Space have been working on a so-called “Stratobus” since 2020. The flying object sighted in Canada is also said to have had a cylindrical shape.
Airbus subsidiary tests solar aircraft
Next seems to be Airbus Defense and Space with Zephyr. The solar-powered drone is reminiscent of an airplane with a large wingspan. In autumn 2021, the company reported on the first two test flights into the stratosphere, which are said to have lasted 18 hours each.
In the future, Zephyr will be used, among other things, for civil and military earth observation and will enable coverage with 4G and 5G networks. A spokesman for the project told Handelsblatt that the aircraft is also suitable for observing other flying objects.
The hydrogen-powered plane is intended to help build the 5G network.
(Photo: Stratospheric Platforms Ltd)
Not only mysterious objects could be discovered like in the USA: Japan, for example, wants to detect missiles with very high-flying drones in the future.
According to the spokesman, Zephyr flies 20 kilometers high and can overlook 7500 kilometers. The aircraft is scheduled to enter commercial service at the end of 2024. Investors are currently being sought for the business, which Airbus operates under the “Aalto” brand name.
Aalto claims to be the only “operational” platform system for great heights. But the British company Stratospheric Platforms (SPL) also wants to build a hydrogen-powered stratospheric aircraft. Deutsche Telekom is also involved in this.
Scientist points to physical phenomena
According to Hakan Kayal, there could also be previously unknown and physical phenomena behind the numerous observations that have not yet been classified. The aerospace professor investigates unidentified flight phenomena at the University of Würzburg, which are called UAP for short (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).
The researcher complains that his field of research has not only suffered from the “alien” stigma for decades. Security interests also stand in the way of independent research, as shown again by the few details that the US government has announced about the flying objects. “We experience live, so to speak, how difficult it is to deal with the issue because security interests and natural phenomena or unknown phenomena are mixed up,” says Kayal.
He hopes that his field of research will be upgraded by the incidents: “We need support from government agencies so that we can collect data independently and get more data,” he says. Part of the problem with classic airspace observation: “Things that are not perceived as a classic threat are filtered out.” Interesting objects can be overlooked – “even if they are just spy devices”.
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