32 meters in diameter and capacity of 570 cubic meters of hydrogen, the structure of the pump-baloões 64 sections were based on Japanese paper, consisting of four layers together by a glue hidrocelulósica made ??on the basis of pulp - Potato called Konnyaku - using a sealant for nitrocellulose finishes that in addition to more consistency gave the set and limited the loss of gas to a negligible 3 cubic meters.
Caught in the globe there was a circular support - which housed the control mechanism of altitude - by 19 cables attached to 14.94 meters in length, flanked by 32 bags of ballast to 3.5 kg each. The lethal loading the mill consisted of two incendiary bombs of 5 kg and a cluster bomb of 15 kg.
In total, have been manufactured about 15,000 mills of this type, of which 9300 were eventually launched against the United States between November 1944 and April 1945, of which 240 would eventually reach its target, causing in some cases, victims among the civilian population. In Bly, Oregon, a wife and five children died following the explosion of a cluster bomb from one of the balloons, while the fire caused by other military installations along the Central Atomic Energy Hanford (Washington) forced the suspension of production material used in the manufacture of the atomic bomb that, paradoxically, would be used a few months later against Japan
The U.S. authorities, who initially hid from the public the Japanese attacks, the hunt for balloons delivered to the Air Force and the Department of Agriculture, who has had to perform the tasks designated Operation Flying Fire.
The United States would recognize later, the balloons drop 285 bombs on the territory of the Aleutian Islands to Michigan in the east, to Alaska, the North, with incidents, including in Mexico.
Ten years on from the end of the Second World War in 1955, a helicopter pilot found near one of these devices Baster Island, the Yukon, there are still several balloons lost in recondite regions of the United States.
The english version of this article will be available soon. In the meanwhile, the text above was the result of a Google translation from portuguese version to english.
