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.
“Mons”16 pages
needed than before, due to the hiring of more personnel. The joint laboratory and office which this project shares with another is highly inadequate for six men of theirs and eleven of ours -- a total of 17 men in a space approximately 15x15 feet. ## d. Methods of Attack Until plastic balloons can be obtained, we will continue to fly clusters of meteorological balloons. ## Apparatus and Equipment The only substantial change in equipment during the period covered by this report, other than general strengthening of flying lines, is the addition of a new main sand ballast dropping device to the equipment train of the flights to be made at Alamogordo. The device consists of a nest of eight plastic tubes each filled with dry sand and sealed on the bottom with a sturdy paper membrane. At the bottom of each tube, resting against the membrane, is a small detonating squib of sufficient force to rupture the paper and permit the sand to fall. Each squib is connected to a different lead on the baro-switch of a radio-sonde modulator, so that a predetermined weight of sand may be released at eight predetermined altitudes. A small wire "shelf" is placed over the commutator of the modulator in such a way that the pin arm is lifted clear of the contacts during ascent and permitted to drop into place at an altitude above that of the highest firing contact. This is designed to prevent the firing of squibs and consequent dropping of ballast during ascent. ## f. Conclusions and Recommendations It is felt that the use of freely extensible meteorological balloons is unsatisfactory for any final solution of our problem because of their inherent instability and the rapid deterioration of neoprene rubber under the rays of the sun. It is felt that cluster flights of these balloons are a purely stop-gap method of floating Watson Laboratories equipment until plastic non-extensible balloons can be obtained and tested. The need for greater work space is becoming increasingly urgent as new personnel are added to the project and the extent of the work grows.
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.