Espionage balloon
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An espionage balloon is a hot air balloon used for spying.
Espionage balloons were a development of the observation balloons used before and during World War I behind the front line. Unlike observation balloons, espionage balloons were neither manned nor moored to the ground; these were designed to fly deep into hostile territories, where they would record intelligence data and transmit them back to the home base. As such, espionage balloons could only be operated successfully when the weather forecast and the wind direction were ideal, and could only last until they were shot down by enemy air defences. However, these were more economical (and indeed dispensable) than manned reconnaissance aircraft, and these balloons did not put flying personnel into harm's way.
Moreover, during the Cold War, espionage balloons launched by the "Free world" also had a secondary psychological warfare capability, with such balloons carrying additional propaganda pamphlets and consumer goods (which were supposedly not freely available inside Communist states) which would be released or otherwise dropped onto Communist territories.
The advent of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and military satellites, coupled with the end of the Cold War, have rendered espionage balloons obsolete.
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