It’s always interesting to discover those reporting on a story before it blows up (typically not literally).
In 2021, writing for The War Zone (part of The Drive, an automotive journalism outlet), Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway analyzed a new, “gigantic” hangar in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region — about the right size for balloon development. (Jim Geraghty covered the The War Zone‘s reporting last week.)
Trevithick and Rogoway write:
One particularly interesting facility that appears to have largely escaped public attention, features, among other things, an absolutely massive hangar — you could fit a Nimitz class supercarrier inside with 100 feet to spare on either side — and is situated near other sites associated with missile defense and anti-satellite activities. The hangar clearly has to do with the development of lighter-than-air craft, which could include large unmanned airship designs capable of operating in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
The War Zone has obtained satellite imagery of this site from Planet Labs and has reviewed additional images of the site that are available from the company, as well as through other sources. The hangar is situated just over five miles south of Bosten Lake, the largest lake in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It is also located some 60 miles east of Korla, Xinjiang’s second-largest city and the capital of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. Malan Air Base, a secretive People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) test base with an emphasis on unmanned platforms, is notably situated on the opposite side of Bosten Lake from this hangar.
Then there’s the human component: Who is developing these contraptions?
Chris Buckley of the New York Times (no relation to WFB) reports:
In 2019, years before a hulking high-altitude Chinese balloon floated across the United States and caused widespread alarm, one of China’s top aeronautics scientists made a proud announcement that received little attention back then: His team had launched an airship more than 60,000 feet into the air and sent it sailing around most of the globe, including across North America.
The scientist, Wu Zhe, told a state-run news outlet at the time that the “Cloud Chaser” airship was a milestone in his vision of populating the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere with steerable balloons that could be used to provide early warnings of natural disasters, monitor pollution or carry out airborne surveillance.
“Look, there’s America,” Professor Wu said in an accompanying video, pointing on a computer screen to a red line that appeared to trace the airship’s path across Asia, northern Africa, and near the southern edge of the United States. By the time of the report, it was over the Pacific Ocean.
Intrepid reporters poring over satellite imagery and archived CCP videos — perhaps journalism isn’t dead yet after all.