[DeTomaso] Air Force Thunderbirds, radar chaff and a scramble - LPC

[David in Durango]

The rumor was, one could make a helium balloon and release it into the 
night sky with a fuse.  BIG FLASH!

Now, we lived about three miles from the end of a runway at Hamilton AFB 
(where, one night, I watched an Air Force Thunderbird flame out at about 
100ft).  At any rate, during rumored experiments it was determined that 
some ballast was needed - too much and the balloon might explode in the 
front yard (this will irritate someone?), too little ballast and the 
balloon might explode before the fuse ignited the gas.  The rumor is, 
when one hangs strips of foil from the balloon for ballast,  it might 
cause the Air Force to scramble a few jets to find the UFO.

Google "radar chaff" - I didn't learn about this until i was doing duty 
as a radar operator a few years later.

Be careful what you fly around gov't installations!

PS, Rumor was those boys had a great time doing experiments in that shed 
. . . . later, one of them bought a Pantera.