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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. 106 n1e Public Information Office was host during the mon~~ to the Senior Air Scouts of ~ie…
  • p. 801 …Up to Boston with Lt Frank Ryder with Navy and \.JHOI April 15 Mon. Contacted Doc…
  • p. 802 …I caught 5.50 train out of Penn Station to Red Bank, NJ April 29 Mon…
  • p. 804 …Dec 9 Mon. Oakhurst. Finished getting all equipment ready for Alamogordo. Chantz, Woody and I went…
  • p. 807 …Arrived AP about 1230 Feb 3 Mon Oakhurst. Peoples in Washington regarding balloon ascention in June…
  • p. 808 …Feb 24 Mon. Alamogordo. '.faited for air transportation today but none available and may not be…
  • p. 809 …In Asbury Park 3 pm March 10 Mon Oakhurst. Vivian and I worked on Flight 25…
  • p. 810 …Cleaned out hanger and emptied trash out at East White Sands April 7 Mon Talked to…
  • p. 811 …April 21 Mon. Alamogordo Air Base. Bill Edmonston and I went out to Tularosa Range and…
  • p. 812 …Took sleeper out of Canton for NYC May 12 Mon. Arrived NYC and caught 0940 out…
  • p. 813 …May 26 Mon. Worked on Tests 1 and 2 records today. No signals from Roswell - some…
  • p. 814 …Took Treland, Mears, Winton, Olsen to Alamogordo to catch train this pm June 9 Mon. Bill…
  • p. 815 …July 7 {Mon) Alamogordo. Balloon Flight 11 A off at 0503. Big plastic with small auxiliary…
  • p. 816 …July 1 Mon. To cabins near Geneva, N.Y. July 15 Tues. Stopped at Syracuse. Got…
AuGusT 1948 ATHELSTAI'.' F. SPILHAUS, C. S. SCHNEIDER, .-\ND C. B. MOORE 137
part of the trajectory of the constant-level balloon.
The interesting fact about the White Sands observa-
tion is that at all but one of the other reported altitudes
between the ground and 20,000 ft, the wind directions
were from either the NE or SE quadrants.
The trajectory of the balloon curved slightly anti-
cyclonically over the eastern slopes of the Sacramento
Mountains. This characteristic is suggestive of the
well-known deforming effect of a mountain range on
an air current directed toward the axis of the range.
In this case, however, the validity of invoking the
aforementioned effect to explain the anticyclonic cur-
~-vature, when the wind at levels below the mountain
summits appears to have been blowing approximately
parallel to the range, depends on assuming that the air
currents parallel to the range themselves constitute a
barrier deforming a higher current blowing in a differ-
ent direction across the mountains. The sharp cyclonic
bend that occurred after the balloon had come over
relatively flat country occurred at the time that the
balloon began its final descent and is due to the fact
that the course of the balloon turned toward the north
as a result of descent to levels where the wind had
maintained a southerly direction throughout the day.
It is of interest to compare this flight with Flight 17
(fig. 10). It may be observed on fig. 10 that no deform-
N Scale.·0
25
ing effect of the mountain barrier is apparent. This,
however, is to be expected, as the altitude of the bal-
loon above the mountain top is three times that of
Flight 11, where this anticyclonic deformation of the
trajectory was observed. The balloon was ultimately
recovered from Croft, Kansas, a distance of 530 miles
from the release point; on the basis of the observed
wind speeds a 12-hour flight duration is estimated.
9. Conclusion
\Vithin the coming year it is hoped that a number
of meteorological investigations may be attempted,
utilizing constant-level balloons. Release of three or
more from a single point to float at the same level,
release at a number of points to obtain a synoptic
presentation of the trajectories in a chosen level, and
the dropping of radiosondes from balloons are some of
the operations to be attempted. Efforts will be made
to simplify the arrangement so that a constant-level
flight may be made in a routine fashion and at no
greater cost than the ordinary radiosonde flight.
REFEREI'.'CE
Clarke, E. T., and S ..\. Korff, 19-H: The radiosonde: the strato-
s~here laboratory. J. Franklin lnst., 232, 217-355.
1~5
DISTANCE (Mil•8 From Alcam~ AAF)
FIG. 10. Height-distance curve and planned trajectory of balloon Flight 17. Released at Alamogordo, New 1\lcxico, 9 September
1947, at 1647 MST. First 125 minutes only are shown. (Numerals on curves indicate minutes after release.)

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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.