What Are Those Meatballs in the Skies Over NJ?

You're driving down the highway and suddenly, as you look to the side of the road, you start seeing red balls in the sky.  They are tethered to powerlines and seem to be lined up perfectly.

My daughters used to call them meatballs.

They'd ask, why are there meatballs in the sky?

Now, I will attempt to settle the mystery of those meatballs in the sky.

Those big red balls are called visibility markers.  They help low-flying aircraft see powerlines that may otherwise be nearly invisible to pilots.

If you think about it, you usually see those balls near airports.

That makes sense, given that planes are constantly taking off and landing, meaning they are flying at a low altitude.

The Federal Aviation Administration is the government agency responsible for governing the balls.

According to a story in Mental Floss, the government has very specific rules when it comes to the balls.

If power lines cross lakes and rivers or canyons, the balls must be 36 inches in diameter.

If the power lines are less than 50 feet tall and within 1500 feet from the end of a runway, they must be 20 inches in diameter.

Most of the time, the balls are separated by 200 feet, but that space decreases to 30 to 50 feet as you get closer to a runway.

Also, the balls I referred to as being red, are actually a color called aviation orange.

If there are less than 4 balls on a powerline, they should all be the same color.

However, if the power lines are longer and there are more balls, they alternate between aviation orange, white, and yellow.

So there you have it.  Mystery solved.