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The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert

USAF / The Black Vault · 1995 · 882 pages · text by OCR

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published by Headquarters United States Air Force in 1995. The Black Vault distributes this copy. It reproduces the report by Col. Richard L. Weaver and the synopsis by 1st Lt. James McAndrew, both written after a General Accounting Office inquiry requested by Representative Steven Schiff. The Air Force search found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concluded that the Roswell debris most likely came from NYU Flight No. 4, a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • p. 118 …Robert Gross and Mr. Maher of Lockheed 11:55 A.M. Gen. Sam Anderson 12:00…
  • p. 393 …in the form of an altitude vs. gross load chart with helium as the lifting gas…
  • p. 394 …4}{\text {Gross Load}} = \frac {K}{W} $$ In turn, $ \frac{K}{W}=a e^{-0. 4…
  • p. 395 …free lift in pounds and G is gross lift in pounds. Although this equation was derived…
  • p. 400 …By equation (10), with a gross load of 52 kg., the unbalance caused by loss of…
  • p. 412 …or a gross buoyancy of 450 lb., the maximum allowable inflation of a 30' diameter, .001…
  • p. 479 …accelerating force equal to 5% of the gross load (52 kg) was acting to bring the…
  • p. 552 …000 feet. In one step, this becomes: Gross Lift/Balloon = (Balloon Volume) x (Difference in molecular…
  • p. 555 …of rise in feet per minute G = gross lift in grams For our purposes, we wish…
  • p. 559 …G) ^ {\frac {2}{3}} $$ (Approximate) where G = gross load A chart, Figure 24, has beendrawn up…
  • p. 561 …where $ \triangle G= $ loss of lift G = gross load (balloon weight plus equipment load) $ \triangle T…
  • p. 562 …not including balloon or its integral parts. Gross load: Load on the gas at release (Balloon…
  • p. 635 …Serial No. ___ description ___ ___ Line length ___ Banner description ___ ___ Ballast assembly - description ___ ___ Eallast. ___ Total Equipment Weight. ___ Gross Load ___
  • p. 636 …Gross Load . . . ___ Assumed Gross Lift (Gross Load + 10%) G ___ G 2/3 ___ Free Lift - F = $ (\frac…
  • p. 649 …theoretical altitude determined by the displacement and gross load. ## 7. Control systems Two systems of control…
  • p. 681 …By adjusting the gross load to be supported by the gas to equal the total lift…
  • p. 691 …A chart showing the relation between altitude, gross lift, and balloon size has been found necessary…
  • p. 775 …The gross load reported should be accurate to the nearest 200 grams. The amount of lifting…
  • p. 777 500 gm DRAG CHUTES 300 " BANNER 2000 " PAYLOAD 4500 " BALLOON 7300 " GROSS LOAD ## NOTE: Use low…
  • p. 779 …bubble length and resultant inflated volume, using gross lift as an expression of volume. It will…
  • p. 781 …in Appendix II summarizes the relationship between gross load and floating level for balloons of several…
  • p. 817 …A can of sand is made to weigh the same amount as the required gross lift…
  • p. 825 …the balloon with the equipment load attached. Gross Lift: Lift of all of the gas in…
  • p. 830 …Serial No. ___ description ___ Drag chute ___ ___ Banner description ___ ___ Ballast assembly - description ___ ___ Ballast ___ Total Equipment Weight . ___ Gross Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ___
  • p. 831 …waiting___ grams Actual balloon lift . . . . . . . . . . . ___ " AActual gross lift (Balloon lift & balloon wt.) . . . . . ___ " Number Helium tanks required…
  • p. 835 …Gross Lift vs. Bubble Length . . . . . . . 107 Graph 3: Buoyancy vs. Altitude . . . . . . . . . . 108 Graph 4: Gross Load…
  • p. 847 …Estimated Gross Load Limit kg. Altitude Range ft. 7 200 0.6 1.5 to 5…
Q: But you had them available for study, but you didn't launch them.

A: No, they didn't have any.

Q: In the New York University report it says that you were provided two Japanese balloons.

A: That's interesting, because I have no memory of them whatsoever. Spilhaus may have. But I have no memory that I ever saw them. In the spirit of being given proper scientific credit, in the paper that you have, the Journal of Meteorology Paper, we, heavily written by Spilhaus, credited the Japanese with doing, with their trans-Pacific flights. So what we were doing certainly was based, came after what they had done, and we didn't want to take credit away from them. But I'm told that on my own, completely free from this, I talked with Wadati and others on a Japanese balloon. I've never seen a Japanese balloon that I know of, I've never seen the payload, but I do have fragments of the Mulberry Favor.

Frankly, we did not depend on the Japanese balloons. The Japanese just preceded us. But we didn't pattern what we were trying to do on what the Japanese did. After all, they had opaque balloons, and my belief from the beginning is balloons ought to be transparent so they don't absorb sunlight so at sunset you don't have the cooling and the ballasting. So we owe nothing to the Japanese other than the fact they were ahead of us.

Q: You went on these field trips. When you left, getting back to the cover story, you were the project engineer. Did people come to you and say you need to put something together in case one of these things falls in somebody's hands?

You didn't.

Did you brief your people, your personnel, when they were there, that they if should go into town for food or something if someone says "Why are you there?"...

A: We were certainly secretive and not talkative, but at the same time...

Q: In other words, was there a developed cover story where everyone got together, discussed what you were going to say or not say concerning the various activities that were going on at Alamagordo and other locations?

A: That's a good question. I have no memory of such a thing. I'm just aware that we were under very strong stricture not to encourage speculation on what we were doing.

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Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 882 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.