After detailed studies of the air currents, the Japanese determined that 35,000 feet was the best launch altitude in order to take advantage of the jet stream. Each balloon bomb had a ballast ...

Japan has removed a legal barrier ... Shunji Izutsu, the Air SDF’s chief of staff, said he believes balloons can easily be destroyed with an “air-to-air missile from our jets or by other ...

thus breaking the record for a hot air balloon flight distance set in 1994 by Japanese pilots. They have carried out the longest flight on a hot air balloon north of the Arctic Circle, since the ...