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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…
## B. Transmitters Used

## (1) 72-Megacycle Radiosonde Transmitter (T-49)

The standard T-49 transmitter of the Army Weather Service was first used in project work, with a modified commutator bar switching specially coded resistors into the circuit as the balloon passed from one critical pressure to another. The operating characteristics of this transmitter may be found in the following publications: T.B. Sig. 165, T.M. 11-2403, T.M. 11-2404 and the Weather Equipment Technician's Manual.

The defects which were encountered in the use of this transmitter were principally (1) relatively short range and (2) unfitness for direction-finding using available equipment. Our experience has been that reception from the T-49 transmitter by standard equipment is not much above 80 miles under good conditions. When flights were made which traveled many times this distances, the inadequacy of this transmitter was clearly demonstrated.

The problem of direction-finding is of major importance when attempts are made to position and track the balloon and its equipment train. Since no standard directional receiver equipment is available for this use with the T-49, this transmitter is of limited value.

## (2) 400-Megacycle FM Transmitter (T-69)

The T-49 transmitter was abandoned in favor of the T-69 400-mc system as soon as ground receiving equipment for the latter was available. By using the directional receiving set SCR-658 with the T-69 transmitter, the problem of direction-finding and positioning was attacked. A second advantage enjoyed by this system is the improved range attainable.

Our experience has been that an SCR-658 set in good condition can receive a signal up to a range of 150 miles, providing that the line-of-sight transmitter is high enough to preclude blocking by intervening terrain. The use of two or more sets to increase the area of a tracking net is discussed under "Radio Direction-Finding" below.

The operating characteristics of the T-69 system and the SCR-658 may be found in these publications: T.B. Sig. 165, T.M. 11-1158A.

Pressure indicators were obtained, as with the T-49, by use of the modified commutator bar switching specially coded resistors into the circuit as the balloon passed from one fixed pressure to another. A few special tests were made of a chronometric system of pressure modulation. For a complete discussion of pressure modulation methods, see Section VI, A.

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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.