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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. 190 …Well, Boford was Navy, that was the Navy... Q: Like taking a Pi Ball reading now…
  • p. 191 …fabricate balloons for us. During that period we heard of the Navy project that was going…
  • p. 207 …But were any of those used as precursors to Mogul or... A: None whatsoever. That was…
  • p. 270 …Ewing had conducted considerable research for the Navy during World War II, studying, among other things…
  • p. 323 …f) Measurements of actual sound channel transmission using a small stratosphere balloon carrying sound receivers and…
  • p. 657 …At the present time this company cannot supply us with balloons until Navy clearance is obtained…
  • p. 693 …for six hours using a non-extensible envelope with the addition of a ballast valve to…
  • p. 704 …Met Gifford who has 90' sea rescue boat this project is planning to use. Stayed at…
  • p. 705 …Wyckoff, Hungerfield, Vaux and myself regarding Navy participation with us in Crossroads. Captain Kellogg of Weather…
  • p. 718 …Schneider up with O'Day to check use as NYU station. Alamoggrdo crew helped get helium…
DECEMBER

	Year	Surface	1,500M	3,000M	5,000M	10,000M
El Paso	1944	N-3	NNE-1	W-2	NW-1
1945	NNE-3	W-3	WNW-6	WNW-6
Roswell	1944	S-1	NW-3	NW-4	WNW-6
1945	SSE-3	WSW-2	WNW-5	WNW-8
Albuquerque	1944	N-3	--	WNW-4	WNW-6	W-10
1945	N-3	--	NW-6	WNW-8	WNW-9
Amarillo	1944	NW-4	NW-4	WNW-5	WNW-6	WNW-8
1945	SW-3	W-2	WNW-5	WNW-9
Big Spring	1944	--	NW-4	NW-5	WNW-6
1945	--	WSW-3	W-6	WNW-7

## D. Tracking Devices: Horizontal

The flights made in the early part of this program were tracked optically with theodolites. Coupled with the height data, theodolite readings provide a fairly reliable horizontal locus of the balloon. However, even in the clear air of New Mexico, this method is useful for not more than 100 miles and, unless accurate height data are available, theodolite stations provide useful data for not more than 40 miles.

Aircraft observations have been used with some success when the ceiling of the balloon is not too great. It is expected that an inverted AN/APQ-13 radar, mounted atop a B-17, will greatly augment the horizontal tracking and will be of some value in determining height.

The most useful equipment for determining horizontal movement of the balloons has been the SCR-658 radio direction finding set. Long after the vertical angles registered by this gear are questionable (due to reflections off intervening terrain), the horizontal angles are useable. Used in sets of two or more, or coupled with height data, these observations give good positions with distances up to 150 miles. Figure 18 shows the coverage a network of four of these sets would provide. In contrast to the theodolites and aircraft observations, these instruments are perfectly operative when

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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.