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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…
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.

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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.