Documents / FOIA release

roswell

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 993 pages · text from the file's own layer

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published in 1995 by Headquarters United States Air Force. It was written in response to Representative Steven H. Schiff's request and a General Accounting Office audit, and it contains Col. Richard L. Weaver's report and 1st Lt. James McAndrew's synopsis, along with attachments, appendices and photographs. The report says researchers found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concludes that the 1947 debris came from a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • p. 17 …of alien beings and elusive vehicles which never quite seem to manifest themselves. Regardless of one…
  • p. 31 …Conversely, there has never been any previous documentary evidence produced by those who would debunk the…
  • p. 32 …This had never been officially done before, although most of the persons contacted reported that they…
  • p. 40 …Lt Col Cavitt also stated that he had never taken any oath or signed any agreement…
  • p. 77 …Because this conclusion is based on the absence of documentation, the issue can never be definitively…
  • p. 99 …H written, there is good evidence through accessioning and microfilming records that the Agency never received…
  • p. 101 …histories and supporting documents, and it has never routinely received the kind of records which might…
  • p. 159 …I have never been sworn to any form of secrecy by anyone concerning this matter and…
  • p. 165 …It never crossed my mind that it could be anything but a radio sonde. RW: How…
  • p. 168 …as far as I knew, I never heard anyone say, "Don't talk about this and…
  • p. 169 …I never met LaPaz personally, but I knew what he was. RW: Did Rickett go with…
  • p. 170 …I forget since I was there in the Washington area for awhile but I never did…
  • p. 172 …To the best of my recollection, I never met the rancher, Brazel. RW: O.K., because…
  • p. 173 …rve never seen a Geiger counter myseU: but I didn't know if you knew what…
  • p. 174 …ordered Marcel to accompany the rancher back to Corona, •· You said you never saw... and then…
  • p. 175 …I never had any idea that it was anything with the V-2. They told us…
  • p. 177 …You and I never saw this. You don't see any military people or military vehicles…
  • p. 178 …said in a facetious way: "Lets make out like it never existed, because we're wasting…
  • p. 179 …to him the crash and recovery had never happened. There was no investigation on the Foster…
  • p. 182 …No, I never saw this. SC: I don't know what that is from. RW: "But…
  • p. 183 …So, some of there records were TS and still are.) That is because they have never…
  • p. 185 …Cav never told me anything. He said nl never tell you anything then you won't…
  • p. 189 …I am quite sure that we never gave it a thought until that book.
  • p. 190 …Now, we have never found the ftight records to substantiate that, so I don't know…
  • p. 202 …related to this inquicy and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning not…
  • p. 207 …related to this inquiry and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning refraining…
  • p. 213 …We never considered a ..planneq cover story; we were concerned with security. I was the project…
  • p. 214 …I never obsCJVed any of the balloon "trains" but I did see some of the early…
  • p. 225 …and subsequent models were brand new, had never flown anything like that in this area. A…
  • p. 228 …I'd never heard the name Mogul -- the classification was that high. I knew what we…
  • p. 240 …I just wanted to see if there had been anything stated to you never to discuss…
  • p. 242 …but I never knew Marcel. in my mind, and there are Yeah, I knew that guy…
  • p. 243 …I've never seen a Japanese balloon that I know of, I've never seen the…
  • p. 246 …No, I've never seen this. Trakowski argued that even the name Mogul was classified, and…
  • p. 249 …Out PM with several NYU men by weapons carrier, but we never located it. Rocket postponed…
  • p. 264 …As far as I know we just never interfaced with the military. Q: Where were you…
  • p. 266 …We never saw anybody in security. There was certainly nobody keeping us secure. If anything, we…
  • p. 273 …who was writing a story, and I never quite could determine whether he was on the…
  • p. 274 …I have never seen such a document nor have I ever heard of any effort to…
  • p. 277 …radar reflectors for tracking purposes-but it never comes out talking about MOGUL and the instrumentation…
  • p. 278 …I never met Richard Robert Crane. I knew him only by the path of debris he…
  • p. 282 …They never said it, but I know they did because they left me free to do…
  • p. 318 …Before now, however, a larger portion of the story was never told. Recent research indicates that…
  • p. 320 …and Project MOGUL as first conceived was never put into operational 1use. However, MOGUL did serve…
  • p. 321 …Moore, NYU Constant-Level Balloon Project Engineer, stated that they were never informed of the classified…
  • p. 567 …and this flight 11as never recovered. Pre- sumably the marked easterly flow then observed above 60…
  • p. 591 …ficienoy since on-ot.f' operation was never per- mitted. The temperature data of' these flights…
  • p. 740 …The theodolite lost the balloon in clouds earlier and the airplane observer never succeeded in seeing…
  • p. 815 …Out pm with several NYU by weapon carrier but we never located it. Rocket postponed until…
its bursting diameter, the gear strikes the ground, or corrective
action is taken. Even if the extremely critical balance is intially
achieved, there will be 'Imbalance occasioned by (1) bursting of
balloons due to deterioration in the sunlight, (2) diffusion of
lifting gas from the balloons, (3) loss or gain of buoyancy "'hen
temperature inside the balloon changes with respect to the ambient
air temperature. This will result initially from radiative dif-
ferences, and after an amount of difference (superheat) has been
established, changes in ventilation will cause changes in buoyancy.
Two methods of attaching the payload to the clusters of rubber bal-
loons were tried. In the first of these (Figure 3) a long load
line was used,and short lines led from it to the individual bal-
loons. The length of such arrays was as much as 800 feet, and
this size made them difficult to launch. The single load ring
array, seen in Figure 4, proved to be much easier to handle and
is recommended for cluster lfnmchings. During ascent each of the
balloons in such an array ride separated from each other and no rub-
bing or chafing has been observed.
The controls which were associated with this balloon system were
crude and, in general, ineffective. They included (l) cutting off
balloons as the buoyancy became excessive and a preset altitude
extreme was passed, and (2) releasing part of the load in the for.m
of solid or liquid ballast whenever descent occurred. The sensi-
tivity of these elastic balloons makes it difficult to control
their altitude with any system of controls, and as controls were
developed it was found more practical to change from freely ex-
panding balloons to non-extensible cells not made of neoprene. The
tendency of neoprene to decay within a few hours when exposed to
sunlight was the most cogent argument against doing more work on
altitude controls to be used with such a system.
B. Plastic Balloons
The next attempts to control the altitude of a balloon vehicle were·
made using non-extensible plastic cells, with an open bottom to pre-
vent rupture when expansion of the lifting gas is excessive. With
a fixed maximum volume, such a system has inherent vertical insta-
bility in only one direction. When full, there is· e. pressure alti-
tude above which a given load will not be carried. The instability
of such a system is found only when an unbalanced d~nward force
exists. The development of controls and films for balloon material
proceeded concurrently, but the choice of a.non-extensible plastic
film was made before the system of control was perfected.
The properties which were given most consiaere.tion in the selection
of fabric include (l) availability and cost, (2) ease of fabrica-
tion and (3) satisfactory chemical and physical properties. Pri-
-9-

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 993 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.