Foam flying ?

[seruriermarshal]

;D

I just found some photos from a user of Flickr Tony Hoffman , he said :

When visiting the Brooklyn Heights Promenade on Halloween, I observed a large number of (several dozen) UFOS--at least craft I was unable to identify, and as an amateur astronomer for several decades I consider myself a trained observer. Nonetheless, I highly doubt they were of extraterrestrial origin--they seemed to emanate from or near a building some 1/4 miles away and were windblown or lofted. I'd guess they were made of some sort of semi-rigid foam, but how they stayed aloft is unclear to me. (Could they have been filled with helium?) Most had a bird- or cross-like appearance, although a few were square or kite-shaped (though there was no sign of any strings)

any body know what's this ?

Or :

http://www.flogoscanada.com/

 

[seruriermarshal]

More :

 

[seruriermarshal]

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[seruriermarshal]

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[seruriermarshal]

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[Orionblamblam]

any body know what's this ?

I saw something on that several years ago... helium-filled low density foam. Some sort of art project.

Like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN-mfQsno2g

Note that the foam is clearly *not* rigid. However, so long as the foam isn't in an area with high wind shear, it will almost instantly attain zero airspeed (apart from upwards drift), and with no relative wind, even something this floppy will look pretty solid.

 

[seruriermarshal]

Thanks for that

 

[Nik]

Slightly OT but, many, many years ago, some students I knew in passing, intoxicated from celebrating passing their course, poured half a gallon of industrial-strength detergent into a city fountain...

Now, this would have been a fairly normal student prank, except that the extensive fountain, pond and garden square were part of the cooling system for the adjacent office block's mainframe...

( I *said* this was long ago ;- )

Yup, the water was tepid. Given that the surrounding air was cold and there was an brisk updraft due to poor building design, the froth was buoyant enough to engulf the gardens then depart down-wind in huge, morphing blobs...

Fortunately, being pre-CCTV, the students decamped before they could be identified...