Sioux Falls company testing high-altitude balloons over Siouxland [Video]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KTIV) – It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s a Chinese spy balloon?

“No, they’re all built right here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So no, they’re South Dakota balloons, not Chinese balloons,” said Russ Van Der Werff, the vice president of Stratospheric Solutions for Aerostar. Aerostar, formerly Raven Industries, is a company that’s been sending balloons to the top of our atmosphere since the 1950s.

“Most of the balloons we’ve been flying lately around the area are what we call our Thunderhead Super-Pressure Balloon System,” said Van Der Werff. “It can navigate by using winds at different altitudes to go from point A to point B and stay there. It’s a 70-foot-wide polyethylene balloon, and it carries whatever payload is needed for the mission.”

Right now, these dirigibles are being tested in Aerostar’s backyard: Siouxland’s airspace.

“We do a lot of flights every year and we’re …