A cylinder that was 20’ long, and 5’ in radius (which is a lot bigger than my minivan - would be about 1570 cubic feet.
That could lift about 100lbs at sea level… at flight level 400… that’s going to have to be a huge balloon to lift 100 lbs or the payload has to be tiny tiny - which is possible but I don’t think something the size of a car is adequate.
1. A lighter than air craft or drone with a small payload
2. A man-made object that uses unknown physics
3. Aliens
I know everyone wants a cooler answer, but I see way too many people being irrational here.
Your are dramatically underestimating the size of these things:
The Chinese high-altitude balloon shot down over the Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend was 200 feet tall and carried a payload the size of a regional airliner, a U.S. Air Force general said in a briefing on Monday.
The balloon's superstructure and hardware weighed "in excess of a couple thousand pounds," said Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command.
https://www.newsweek.com/china-spy-balloon-size-200-ft-jet-a...
Here's a similar sized one NASA put up a few years ago: https://remus.jpl.nasa.gov/balloon.htm
That being said, ultralight glider technology is actually really good. It is plausible with ultralight materials you could build a car-sized thing, put it on some kind of solar-powered glider and keep it in the air for a long time.
pilot selection of aim9 over guns due to difficulty/risk of engagement is concerning. would really like recoverable intel, or at least some more detailed assessment prior to engagement.
I'm assuming this information is just not being released, but it begs for obvious scrutiny.
we want a picture
“A unidentified object has been shot down by U.S. forces over Lake Huron, according to the Department of Defense. The object appears to be the same object that had been detected over Montana a day earlier, said officials.“
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/12/1156428862/us-shoot-down-ufo-...