Many years ago sone guys in a local club tried using air balloons anchored to the pond floor. Every ship participating was required to have a taped pin in it's bow. It was successful in sinking small ships and lifting large ships out of the water. By using dark colored balloons, it made it difficult to see the mines from a distance and from angles. I'm just curious if anyone still does this. Thanks, Skip
I remember doing something like that once. Just for fun, I put a small LEGO boat in the bathtub, then pumped air into a water balloon underneath the boat until it popped. Very effective, except it left little bits of water balloon floating around. Other than that, I don't know of anything like that being tried. Recently, one of my buddies has been talking about a similar idea, that harms ships in a similar fashion. Basically you take a large (20 gallon plus) air compressor and pressurize it. Then you run out 1.5"-2" pipe to the "mined" area, and put a super-high-flow valve between the pipe and the compressor tank. When a ship sails into the danger zone, you open the valve and a whole bunch of air goes rushing out. The effect should be quite similar to the balloons you've described. A powerful shop vac might also work.
I was thinking about the mess it that it would leave. If the air filled balloon was coated with a layer of dope and dried before it was submerged. Maybe the dope would hold the peices together. Like car glass,does,kinda. Sounds like a Saturday test. Leave only footprints take only pictures.
