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. 319 …other things, the "sound channel" in the ocean. He proved that explosions could be heard thousands…
  • p. 567 …feet carried this second flight into the Pacific Ocean. Radar~ RDF and theodolite were used to…
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-

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.