Google's Internet Balloon

[pc747]

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A look at Google's Project Loon.

 

[Ollie]

These will be coasting around at 32,000 feet. Guess what else travels at that height? Commercial airliners.

It's cool that they can stay up for 6 months. That's a huge achievement in itself.

 

[pc747]

These will be coasting around at 32,000 feet. Guess what else travels at that height? Commercial airliners.

It's cool that they can stay up for 6 months. That's a huge achievement in itself.

Yeah but they can find ways to id them so transponders can pick them up. Also another benefit they did not highlight but should be noted is if they are that high in the air with the commercial airliners then they may be able to provide high speed data to passengers. Unfortunately they will have to work out the logistics of where to place the balloon so that airliners that are traveling at high speed can still remain connected.

 

[Ollie]

I don't believe they should be able to use that altitude at all. Transponding IDs or not these things will inevitably conflict with passenger liner airspace. Look at the big stink they are making about drones and now imagine sucking one of these up into a turbine engine.

 

[Jeffrey]

They have been using this in New Zealand and Australia for about a year. I believe they are 32km or 20 miles high. Air traffic is no issue.

 

[Ollie]

They have been using this in New Zealand and Australia for about a year. I believe they are 32km or 20 miles high. Air traffic is no issue.

That makes far more sense! I read an article two days ago that showed a loon at 10km. Google's project site shows triple that.

 

[Mustang02]

I read they are higher than commercial flight heights but military goes higher. That could be interesting.