Car-Sized Clear Balloon With Some Type of Black Cube in the Center

[SMdelta]

Hello. Brand new member here. I stumbled on this forum doing a Google image search on that Gemini UFO picture after listening to a podcast about it. The UAP topic has really gotten me interested since that 2017 NYT article about the secret Pentagon program then the Congressional hearings came out. Something really feels like we might be getting close to actual disclosure but of course, I won't get my hopes up.
My current profession is in application software development. Prior to that I was a pilot and flew professionally for a short 2.5 years at an airline before losing my medical certificate due to a health issue. Big time bummer but all is well. Unfortunately, I never really saw anything I couldn't explain flying around with us.

However, there was one sighting that recently started kind of bugging me again. In 2011 we were on an approach into Houston on a clear afternoon and at about 7000 feet the captain and I saw what looked like a large car sized clear balloon with some type of black cube in the center of it. It was maybe 1000 feet below us and passed by to the left of us. It wasn't traveling fast at all. I think it might have been stationary. Anyway, we were basically shrugged it off and that was it. It wasn't until a few years ago during one of the UAP hearings when for F-18 pilot Ryan Graves literally described the exact same type of craft that I saw. There is no way that's any sort of strange coincidence. It definitely gave me the chills and got me very interested in the UAP topic again. Anyway, nice to be here.

 

[Mendel]

what looked like a large car sized clear balloon with some type of black cube in the center of it.

see https://www.metabunk.org/threads/cube-in-a-sphere-ufos-seen-by-navy-pilots-radar-targets.10789/
Welcome!

 

[JMartJr]

There is no way that's any sort of strange coincidence.

I'd disagree with that respectfully. There are a gazillion things in the air, perceived in a few gazillion ways. That seems a situation in which a lot of coincidences will occur! Not to say it CAN'T have been the same balloon, or the same secret research program or the same alien spaceship.

But a coincidence in description of dissimilar objects also seems very possible.

And welcome aboard!

 

[John J.]

I always thought this illustration posted by Mick West in the "Cube in a Sphere UFO's Seen by Navy pilots. Radar Targets?" thread, linked to by Mendel above, had some similarities to Ryan Graves' (and perhaps @SMdelta's?) description. From a 1972 patent:

The basic idea of a radar reflector in a balloon is much older, with this patent going back to the 1940s

"Air-borne corner reflector", US patent US2463517A, https://patents.google.com/patent/US2463517A/en

I don't think we've found evidence of such items being used (very similar-looking foldaway/ inflatable radar reflectors are available for maritime use, but they're not lighter-than-air AFAIK- they wouldn't be encountered in flight). We've certainly seen examples of radar reflectors of this shape suspended from balloons,

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently held joint defensive drills with local militia units that included deploying tethered balloons with radar reflectors attached to them as a means to protect critical infrastructure from aerial attack.

The TWZ Newsletter, Emma Helfrich, 5 December 2022 https://www.twz.com/china-seen-using-radar-reflector-balloons-to-defend-key-targets

Back to the reflector-in-a-balloon designs, the basic concept is reasonably simple, and other types of lightweight reflector structures visible within balloons have been tested,
e.g. this University of Arizona, Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Lab prototype for their Large Balloon Reflector Project

"The Large Balloon Reflector Project", 2014 http://soral.as.arizona.edu/LBR/ (note, website flagged as insecure).
The project has progressed, although later balloons appear to be of metallic appearance, not transparent.
Maybe there are (or were) other research (or military) balloons with a similar appearance to this or the earlier patent designs.

 

[SMdelta]

Interesting for sure. Id never heard of these and its absolutely possible that this is what we saw.

 

[Smythe Bacchus]

"The Large Balloon Reflector Project", 2014 http://soral.as.arizona.edu/LBR/

The now defunct Project Loon was a similar concept of reflective balloons for internet communications, that was ultimately outclassed by Starlink.

The LBR twist is to facilitate inflatable balloon reflector deployment from satellites, to overcome size and weight limits of more conventional designs thus far.

Details on the timeline of the LBR concept below. Note the more personal details in the last article. This is a good example of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!

Article:

NIAC 2013 Phase I and Phase II Selections

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program is proud to announce its 2013 awards. ...

Each Phase I study will receive approximately $100,000 for one year, and each Phase II study will receive approximately $500,000 for two years. These studies will advance numerous innovative aerospace concepts, and help NASA achieve future goals.

PHASE I

Walker, Christopher
10 meter Sub-Orbital Large Balloon Reflector (LBR)
University of Arizona

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/general/niac-2013-phase-i-and-phase-ii-selections/

Article:

Christopher Walker
University of Arizona
› Phase I Final Report (PDF)

... we propose to develop and demonstrate the technology required to realize a suborbital, 10 meter class telescope suitable for operation from radio to THz frequencies. The telescope consists of an inflatable, half-aluminized spherical reflector deployed within a much larger carrier balloon – either zero pressure or super pressure. Besides serving as a launch vehicle, the carrier balloon provides both a stable mount and radome for the enclosed telescope. Looking up, the LBR will serve as a telescope. Looking down, the LBR can be used for remote sensing or telecommunication activities.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/general/10-meter-sub-orbital-large-balloon-reflector-lbr-2/

Article:

NIAC 2014 Phase I (and Phase II) Selections

PHASE II

Walker, Christopher
10 meter Sub-Orbital Large Balloon Reflector (LBR)
University of Arizona

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/general/niac-2014-phase-i-selections/

Article:

10 meter Sub-Orbital Large Balloon Reflector (LBR)

... LBR is a multi-institution effort between the University of Arizona (the PI institution), SWRI, JPL, and APL.


Source: https://youtu.be/gZbcC5qHHTM

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/general/10-meter-sub-orbital-large-balloon-reflector-lbr/

Article:

NASA Tech Breathes Life Into Potentially Game-Changing Antenna Design

Some 30 years ago, a young engineer named Christopher Walker was home in the evening making chocolate pudding ..., he shut off the stove and stretched plastic wrap over the pot to keep the pudding fresh. By the time he returned, the cooling air in the pot had drawn the wrap into a concave shape, and in that warped plastic, he saw something – the magnified reflection of an overhead lightbulb – that gave him an idea that could revolutionize space-based sensing and communications.

That idea became the Large Balloon Reflector (LBR), ...

The concept turns part of the inside surface of an inflated sphere into a parabolic antenna. A section comprising about a third of the balloon's interior surface is aluminized, giving it reflective properties.

With NIAC funding, and a grant from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Walker was able to develop and demonstrate technologies for a 33-foot-diameter (10 meters) LBR that was carried to the stratosphere by a giant balloon. For comparison, the aperture of NASA's massive James Webb Space Telescope is over 21 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter.

"There was no place other than NIAC within NASA to get this off the ground," says Walker, now a astronomy and optical engineering professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "At first, I was afraid to share the idea with colleagues because it sounded so crazy. You need a program within NASA that will actually look at the radical ideas, and NIAC is it."

In 2018, Freefall Aerospace, a company co-founded by Walker to develop and market the technology, demonstrated the LBR's potential aboard NASA's stadium-sized stratospheric balloon, which carried a 3.28-foot scale model to an altitude of 159,000 feet.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-tech-breathes-life-into-potentially-game-changing-antenna-design/

Example patents with Christopher K. Walker as inventor:

US20180198214A1 Spherical reflector antenna for terrestrial and stratospheric applications

US10680310B2 Balloon reflector antenna