Documents / Report
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.
$$
F = \left(\frac {V}{4 1 2}\right) ^ {2} \times (G) ^ {\frac {2}{3}}
$$
(Approximate)
where G = gross load
A chart, Figure 24, has beendrawn up, based on this equation, expressing free lift as a percentage of gross load, allowing the rate of rise to be approximately predetermined.
## E. Ballast Requirements
The amount of ballast which must be dropped through the manual ballast valve to keep the balloon at its ceiling, can be approximately determined by the following measurements: a balloon of similar size and construction is inflated and its loss of lift with time is measured with correction for variation of temperature. This inflation is not complete, but is of the same magnitude as that of a balloon ready for release, approximately 14% of full inflation in the case of a General Mills balloon. The loss of lift per hour, multiplied by a factor representing the increase of the surface which results from total inflation, is thus obtained. This factor is the reciprocal of the fraction of inflation raised to the two-thirds power for a spherical balloon, and is approximately the same for the tear-drop shaped General Mills balloons.
Field experience has shown that ballast leak pre-set to slightly exceed the computed loss of lift is insufficient. A ballast leak of double the computed loss of lift has usually been adequate. It is believed that increased liquid viscosity and valve closure caused by the colder temperatures of the high atmosphere are responsible for the need for this higher ballast setting. An investigation into temperature effects on the ballast release systems has been started.
The amount of ballast which must be released at sunset to compensate for the loss of superheat, may be computed as follows: 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.