Quote:
Originally Posted by jimjamuser
I believe that i heard on TV that they could be steered ......somehow?
|
"Steering" is a stretch. Jet streams (which this thing was apparently taking advantage of) flow generally west to east but they are notoriously fickle, sometimes changing direction from east to west, to north to south. If you're depending on a jet stream to get you to, say, Oklahoma, you might end up over Iowa instead.
Balloons can also take advantage of the differing directions of winds aloft. A south wind at 3,000' might be a west wind at, say, 6,000'. Differing directions and different wind speeds at various altitudes. Balloon pilots have cross-country competitions that utilize this, but again it is a notoriously INaccurate way to get from point A to point B.