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.
“Sea”23 pages
$$
\Delta G = G x \frac {\Delta T}{T} x (1 + K) K
$$
where $ \triangle G= $ loss of lift
G = gross load (balloon weight plus equipment load)
$ \triangle T= $ mean temperature difference in
lifting gas before and after sunset
T = free air temperature
K = specific gravity of lifting gas,
relative to air
The specific gravity of 98% helium, diluted with air, and with respect to air, is 0.157. It may be noted that with a lower specific gravity of a gas, lower ballast corrections are required. Hydrogen, for example, requires half the ballast which helium requires for the same temperature differential. At high altitudes, a difference of $ 4 0^{\circ} \mathrm{C} $ may be expected in the temperature of the lifting helium from day to night. This would correspond to a loss of lift at sunset, on a General Mills 20-foot balloon, of about 550 grams.
## F. Internal Pressure
The maximum internal pressure which can be held within a spherical container is given by Timoshenko $ ^{8} $ :
$$
P = \frac {2 S _ {u x t}}{r}
$$
where $ S_{u} $ is the ultimate strength of the material
in tension, t is thickness of the material and r is the radius of the spherical shape. Applying this equation to a polyethylene film, such as used in the General Mills 20-foot balloons, $ S_{u} $ at room temperature = 1900 psi., t = 0.001", and r = 10 ft., giving the maximum pressure, P = 0.032 psi. This pressure is equivalent to about 1.1 inches of water, or 2.5 mb. This small bursting pressure necessitates proper inflation and load values to prevent the balloon's 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.