Documents / FOIA release
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.
Flight 94: Released from Alamogordo, New Mexico, 1208 MST, September 3, 1948 Recovered At Villa /Ylumada, Chihuahua, Mexico On this flight, a fourth attempt was made to sustain a Seyfang, neoprene- coated nylon balloon. On Flight 79, a previous Seyfang flight, no ballast equipment had been in operation, and so a careful record of ballast flow on Flight 94 was desired. This was provided by a ballast meter. In addition to this and the barograph and Olland _pressure-measuring instruments, a thenno- graph was also part of the equipment train. The height-time curve (Figure 43) shows that the initial buoyancy sur- plus of this balloon (for the most part due to superpressure held behind 40 1--------------~--- 1 ~ 1--~--------~--~--~------4-------------~ FLIGHT 94 Released at Alomogado)'tM. Sept 3,1948- 1208M.SI RacxMinrd ot'JIIIo Anlmada. ~~~--------~-------4~ CN~a,Mu OI.LAJI) eMU IMa 0~------~----~------~~----~---------------J 1100 ·~ MOO 1100 1100 TIME CM.S:tl Figure 43 the safety valve) was reduced by diffusion so that after one hour of floating it began to descend at an accelerating rate. After falling about 2000 feet, the automatic ballast valve began to operate, and ballast was discharged at the rate of 4:!0 grams per minute. During the descent, however, the strong superheat Which the balloon had acquired was reduced by ventilation. The adiabatic lapse rate of helium is 2°C per kilometer, Whereas air in the troposphere warms up about 60C with ea_ch kilometer of descent. This means that v.'ith each kilometer of fall, the lifting gas was cooled relative to the air by an additional 40C. The combination of inertia, loss of super• heat through ventilation, and adiabatic cooling ot. the gas as it was com- pressed, proved too great for the limited flow of ballast through the auta- matic valve, and the balloon fell unchecked to the ground. From Flight 79, it was detennined that superheat of nearly 400C is built up when Seyf'ang balloons are fl01m in the sunshine. It this Yrere lost, the buoyancy of the balloon would be reduced by one-sixth, and no satisfactory control could be achieved by ba~last dropping. -53-
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.