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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…
altitude as it has no further buoyancy. This altitude stability exists only as long as the balloon is in the fully inflated or "taut" state. Once the balloon starts descending (due to loss of hydrogen by diffusion or by other loss) it becomes flabby and is no longer stable. It will continue descending until corrective action is taken or until it reaches the earth.

The altitude control is to be used is the ballast valve. When correctly set it will determine the lower limit of the balloon's oscillation as it would release a free flowing liquid ballast from a reservoir whenever the balloon descends a short distance below a preset altitude.

To test this tentative solution to the basic problem, intermediate sizes of balloon made of suitable fabric or films are needed in addition to the altitude controls.

## Balloons

Balloon manufacturers and fabricators of plastic films were contacted to locate a suitable balloon material. The following materials were suggested:

Material	Advantages	Disadvantages	Disposition
Plastic Film
Polyethylene	Good low temperature properties(Gen.Mills desires to fabricate Picard's balloons from this).	Low tensile strength,Milky-translucent,Medium permeability.	10 ea.15 ft. balloons being fabricated from it.
Saran	Transparent,low permeability,high tensile strength.	Tears easily,fair low temperature properties(?),weak at seams if heat sealed.	5 large balloons being fabricated.

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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.