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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. 193 …overhead and followed the balloons out to sea. I have no idea about the results that…
  • p. 200 …the regular 334 that we had at sea level. From that they could deduce the temperature…
  • p. 243 …actually located on the jurisdictional lines between Sea Girt and Springlake, New Jersey. It was an…
  • p. 244 …The Sea Girt Inn? A: Exactly. That's where John had his office, and I was…
  • p. 320 …alone is about 24,000 miles at sea level, and about 4500 miles at 45,000…
  • p. 325 …twenty-five (25) feet at their largest sea-level diameter. The sonic unit was a combination…
  • p. 378 …per hour when one-fifth inflated at sea level). One other type of balloon which has…
  • p. 402 …Let us, then, compare the rate of leakage at any given altitude with leakage at sea…
  • p. 404 …The leakage at any altitude may be expressed as a function of leakage at sea level…
  • p. 405 Comparing rate of leakage at 40,000 feet with leakage at sea level: $$ \frac {L _ {4…
  • p. 407 …If a 20-foot diameter balloon $ \frac{1}{1 0} $ full were tested at sea level…
  • p. 408 …At sea level this is equivalent to 5.32 gm/hr. for a 20-foot diameter…
  • p. 414 …Using the rules of subsonic aerodynamics, Picard suggests that air at sea level escaping at 1333…
  • p. 415 …air at sea level (lb./ft. $ ^{3} $ ) 14.7 = pressure of air at sea level (psi…
  • p. 432 …to about 20 millibars and increased to sea-level pressure at different temperatures. The most comprehensive…
  • p. 563 …The height above mean sea level as determined from pressure measurements used in this work with…
  • p. 644 …point at which the radiosonde reaches the sea surface. ## 2. Earlier attempts There have been numerous…
  • p. 645 …The balloons floated between the surface and 30,000 ft above sea level; those which reached…
  • p. 704 …Met Gifford who has 90' sea rescue boat this project is planning to use. Stayed at…
  • p. 719 …Worzel working on gravity at sea. Saw Geo Woollard and the Ryders. Woollard after Guggenheim fellowship…
  • p. 779 …the launching site is markedly different from sea level, a shift in this curve is needed…
  • p. 817 …balloon at all times with respect to sea level. On this curve also it is customary…
  • p. 825 …The height above mean sea level as determined from pressure measurements used in this work with…
made on this project. A complete report of these flights and the equipment used is included in "Technical Report 121.01"(6) by this Research Division.

## 2. High Neutron Intensity Study (Contract AF 28(099)-10)

In conjunction with a study to determine the altitude of maximum neutron density a modification was made on the Constant Altitude balloon system developed under this contract. In order to study neutron densities at two different altitudes with the same set of instruments, it was desirable to carry these instruments through a "stepped flight". The balloon system in this case was to ascend to a selected altitude (say 45,000 ft.) float there for one hour and then ascend to a higher altitude (for example 65,000 ft.) to float for another hour before descending.

The advantages of this type flight for Cosmic Ray studies are that a given altitude may be sampled for a long enough period of time to obtain statistically valid results, and such statistical sampling can be made at several levels without the necessity of releasing another balloon system and other set of neutron sensing instruments. By proper design of equipment a fairly wide range of altitudes can be sampled with "altitude steps" of almost any desired size.

The step effect is attained by release of a fairly large amount of ballast at a fast rate set off by a pre-set clock timer or a radio release activated by a transmitter on the ground. The amount of ballast to be released is determined from the standard altitude- volume load relationships used for constant-level balloon flight. As a part of the final ballast release, the ballast tank and its controls may be dropped from the system.

If the level positions of the flight must be controlled to fine limits, or if they must be of long duration (more than two hours) it is necessary to employ constantlevel ballast control over these portions of the flight. However, if the level portions of the flight are to be in the neighborhood of 1 hour duration, ballast control during these floating periods can be eliminated, making use of the inherent stability of the plastic balloon systems for short range constant level flights. It is this latter method which was used by the New York University group in the study of Neutron Maxima.

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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.