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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. 39 …An advance ground team, led by Albert P. Cray, preceded the NYU group to Alamogordo Army…
  • p. 96 …OSI also developed an advanced Narcotics Investigations Course designed to teach the latest technics in combatting…
  • p. 174 …Dr Crary and Dr Peoples were the advance people and scientific monitors for our project. Dr…
  • p. 247 …Spilly was a consultant, and even in his advancing age he was still an enormous source…
  • p. 273 …the advance party of the balloon group arrived by B-17. $ ^{21} $ On May 29, the…
  • p. 617 …in advance of balloon release and a second notice will be filed at the time of…
  • p. 618 …Upon attaining the desired altitude, the auxiliary lifting balloons will be released from the main balloon…
  • p. 694 …in advance of balloon release and a second notice will be filed at the time of…
  • p. 695 (1) The type balloon to be used in this phase of the project will be a…
The physical and chemical properties needed in a balloon material are: (1) chemical stability, (2) low permeability, (3) high tensile strength, (4) low brittle temperature, (5) high tear resistance, (6) high transparency to heat radiation and (7) light weight.

In Table 1 the properties of 7 plastics and 2 coated materials are given. From this data polyethylene and saran appear to be the most suitable films.

Table 1

Fabric	Low Temperature Properties	Permeability	Tensile Strength	Tear Resistance	Ease of Fabrication	Stability to Ultraviolet
Polyethylene	Good	Medium	Low	Good	Good	Good
Saran	Fair	Low	High	Poor	Fair	Fair
Nylon	Good	Low	High	Low	Good	Good
Vinylite	Very poor	Medium	Medium	Good	Good	Good
Teflon	Believed good	Low	High	Good	Cannot be fabricated	Good
Ethocellulose	Good	Very high	Low	Fair	Good	Good
Pliofilm	Poor	High	Poor	Fair	Good	Poor
Nylon or silk fabric coated with:Neoprene	Fair	Low	High	Fair	Fair	Fair
Butyl rubber	Good	Low	High	Fair	Fair	Good

Having decided upon the proper fabric to be used, an effort was made to interest a number of companies in the fabrication and production of balloons. The first supplier of balloons made of polyethylene was Harold A. Smith, Inc., Mamaroneck, New York. In these balloons, 4 and 8 mil sheets were heat sealed to form a spherical cell open at the bottom. Load attachment tabs were set into the fabric and loading lines ran from these tabs to a load ring. This method of supporting the load proved to be unsatisfactory.

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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.