Project Moby Dick

Project 119L was a Cold War reconnaissance operation by the U.S. Air Force in which large espionage balloons floated cameras over the Soviet Union.

The spy balloons would photograph sensitive Soviet sites and either hang in the air or land in the Sea of Japan until either a crew flying the C-119 Flying Boxcar or a naval vessel retrieved them.

The previously conducted "Project Moby Dick" used much smaller balloons launched from what was called a "Covered Wagon".

Their payloads were then tracked across the continental United States to map and study high altitude wind trajectories.

[1] Project Flying Cloud, Weapons System 124A, was a derived concept to use balloons to deliver weapons of mass destruction.