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. 225 …Well, Boford was Navy, that was the Navy .•• Q: Like taking a Pi Ball reading now…
  • p. 226 …fabricate balloons for us. During that period we heard of the Navy project that was going…
  • p. 242 …But were any of those used as precursors to Mogul or ••. A: None whatsoever. That was…
  • p. 319 …Ewing had conducted considerable research for the Navy during World War II, studying, among other things…
  • p. 789 …for six hours using a non-extensible envelope vri th the addition of a balla.st…
  • p. 801 …Vet Gifford ;.;ho has 0 0' sea rescue boat this project is planning to use. Stayed…
  • p. 802 …tlyckoff, Hungerfield, 'faux and ~yself regarding Navy participation with us in Crossroads. Captain Kellogg of Weather…
  • p. 815 …Schneider up with 0 'Day to check use as NYU station. Alamoggrdo crew helped~.get helium…
various cluster arrangements. None of these have been too satisfactory
but further investigationwill be made in the field of shrouded or ooated
films.
B. Altitude Controls
Given a balloon capable of caJTying the instruments to a desired
altitude (the theory and computations involved are discussed in Section 3),
there remains the problem of maintaining the cell at a constant level. The
buoyancy of a gas-filled cell will decrease as the cas leaks or diffuses
through the balloon wall. To hold an absolutely om.stant altitude, the
volume of lifting gas entrapped must be maintained in an atmosphere of
unvarying horizontal density, with no change in the total weight supported
by the balloon and with no fluctuations of the temperature of the gas with
respect to the air. The best approximation to these conditions may possibly
be achieved through the use of liquified hydrogen, which would be permitted
to evaporate at a rate in excess of gas leakage. The weight of equipment
required to control this evaporation rate appears to be prohibitive. Liquid
hydrogen, also, is not safe to handle.
Two practical methods of keeping a balloon at nominally constant
altitude have been devised, both using the liquid ballast dropping technique.
(Solid ballast, such as sand, does not flow well and is liable to absorb
moisture whiohwill freeze at the temperatures experienced at high altitudes.
Although a few preliminary flights were made with desiccated sand, a highly
refined water-free kerosene-type petroleum product,campass fluid,was found
to be more satisfactory) ,
In the simpler control system, ballast is dropped at a pre-determined
rate, aimed to slightly exceed the loss of lift of the balloon du~ to leakage
and diffusion. If this method is successfully used, the balloon stays full
because the remaining gas in the balloon has less load to support; the ref ore,
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Cases discussed

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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.