roswell

Flight 17, using a fifteen-foot balloon of .004 Polyethylene is
worthy of special consideration. The thickness of this type of cell
eliminates much of the problem of appendix design since more internal
pressure can be withstood. Despite this factor, and the low permeability
of the fabric, balloons of thie type are too heavy and costly to be used
for higb altitude flights.
The trajec.tory and time-altitude curve of this flight are shown
in figure 56 and 57. This controlled-altitude flight demonstrates that
the automatic ballast valve combined with a fixed leak, will successfully
maintain constant altitude through a sunset. The balloon floated at 29,000
feet + 500 feet for at least three hours, after which the excessive range
prevented further radio reception. Here again the necessity of a barograph
was demonstrated as the balloon was recovered from Pratt, Kansas, 530 miles
away. Two flights, 23 and 38, were made using the shrouded Dewey and Almy
J-2000 Neoprene balloon. Both of these flights were failures. Flight 23
(see figure 48) attained a maximum altitude at 50,700 feet and began to
descend immediately. Flight 38 (see figure 55) was observed from a B-25,
and the balloon was seen to burst ld thin the shroud.
Section 6. Current Objectives
In order to meet the requirements for future flights, improvement
must be made in three phases:
1. Performance data for too many flights have been either uncertain
or of too short duration. Before more flights are undertaken,
altitude~easuring instruments must be improved and increased.
To this end, four specific improvements are being ur.dertaken:
A. To supplement the pressure data received by r~dio, a
lightweight barograph will be added to those fli~ht
trains in the future when fli~ts of more thfl.n e. fow
hours' duration are attempted,
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