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Comment Threads

• GoCaptain commented on Project Stargate
  Well, Napoleon did have a balloon corps. Actually I'm surprised more use wasn't made of balloons for reconnaissance....
• Charlie Stross commented on Project Stargate
  I'm surprised more use wasn't made of balloons for reconnaissance. Balloons were used extensively for battlefield observation in the 19th century. Trouble is, an untethered balloon will drift away with the wind -- and without radio all you've got is line-of-sight communications (semaphore, basically), so the balloonists will be out of range within a short-ish period of time and thereafter have the headache of landing in unknown (possibly hostile) territory and retrieving their bulky and expensive vehicle. Tethered balloons were also used, with much more reliable results. However, once sufficiently accurate small calibre breech-loading artillery came along ... well, it's...
• paws4thot commented on Project Stargate
  ISTR that the last use of tethered balloons for observation was in WW1. I think we can all guess why!...
• GoCaptain commented on Project Stargate
  A quick glance at wikipedia shows you to be correct. Much more use of balloons than I'd thought. I had thought the potential for military use of balloons was largely ignored until WWI. Maybe that comes from reading the early Biggles stories, the ones where he's an RFC pilot, combat worn, two week life expectancy, smokes, gets involved with femme fatale German agent. That's before he turns to chaste homoerotic relationships, obviously. That's where I first learned of observation balloons and the risks RFC pilots took to shoot them down....
• JamesPadraicR commented on Project Stargate
  In the US Civil War there were observation balloons with telegraph wires following the tethers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Army_Balloon_Corps...