Where are all the barrage balloons?

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:19 PM

Just wondering. There must have been hundreds if not thousands produced during the war, where have they all gone? All scraped or kept in some long lost civil defence store. Come to think of it, what happened to all of the inflatable trucks and tanks produced in the run up to D-Day? Do any still exist? If I can't afford a real tank maybe an inflatable one would fill that hole in my life.

**relicz** · 01-02-2015, 07:21 PM

I doubt the inflatable prop vehicles were manufactured for long term survival. Be interested to find out more though.

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:24 PM

This sort of thing

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:27 PM

by relicz

I doubt the inflatable prop vehicles were manufactured for long term survival. Be interested to find out more though.

It's the sort of thing you could see a film company keeping hold of as a film prop for long distance shots, unless of course they were considered so secretive they were destroyed. I guess barrage balloons could be seen as an aviation hazard if released on to the general market, although most ex-military stuff is sold in one way, shape or form (quite often intentionally damaged, i.e. parachutes)

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:31 PM

'Honest, it's the first time it's happened. I've got a lot on at work at the moment, really tired. Really, really tired.'

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:35 PM

Where have they gone?

**Grimebox** · 01-02-2015, 07:51 PM

From Wikipedia:

After the war, some surplus barrage balloons were used as tethered shot balloons for nuclear weapon tests throughout most of the period when nuclear weapons were tested in the atmosphere. The weapon or shot was carried to the required altitude slung underneath the barrage balloon, allowing test shots in controlled conditions at much higher altitudes than test towers. Several of the tests in the Operation Plumbob series were lifted to altitude using barrage balloons.