Spy History: Evolution of Aerial Spying Over the Past 200 Years

Last month, the US government shot down a Chinese spy balloon floating near a South Carolina beach. 

The Pentagon said it was there gathering intelligence. China said it was doing civilian research. Regardless, it was nothing new.

Governments have been spying on each other for hundreds of years...Here's how surveillance from the sky has developed over the years...

The first record of aerial surveillance happened toward the end of the 18th century. During the Revolutionary War, the French successfully used hot air balloons to monitor combat during the Battle of Fleurus against Britain, Germany, and Holland. more

FBI Lab Will Get to the ‘Guts’ of Chinese Balloon

The US has finished work to recover sunken remnants of the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina and the debris reinforces that it was for spying, officials have said.

The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, said the wreckage included “electronics and optics” but declined to say what the US had learned from it so far.

“It’s a significant amount [of recovered material], including the payload structure as well as some of the electronics and the optics, and all that’s now at the FBI laboratory in Quantico,” Kirby said. more