In the 1950’s the U.S. Military and the CIA enlisted balloons
(some as tall as a 40-story building) as weapons systems
targeting the Soviet Union. Throughout the decade they launched
a series of Top Secret/codeword balloon projects and thousands
of balloons, to gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. The
stories of these programs are interesting but the unexpected
consequences of their secrecy created a mythology that outlasted
the missions. Balloons had attributes that airplanes couldn’t
match – they could stay aloft for a long time (days or even
weeks,) they could reach altitudes where airplanes couldn’t fly
(100,000 feet,) and they could go places that were too dangerous
for manned aircraft (flying over the Soviet Union.) The Search
for Soviet Nuclear Weapons Project MOGUL was an Air Force
balloon program to detect Soviet nuclear tests by listening to
sound waves traveling through the upper atmosphere. During World
War II, scientists had discovered the existence of an ocean
layer that conducted underwa