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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…
In several cases squibs used for altitude control failed to fire at extremely high altitudes. It is believed that placing a small load on batteries may help keep cells warm enough to produce the necessary voltage at high altitude on future flights.

## 3. Limitations

The greatest factor hindering the progress of work is still the lack of available space at New York University.

## d. METHODS OF ATTACK

Field tests at Alamogordo indicated that a Helios-type cluster is much superior to a long cosmic-ray type flying line in case of fabrication, handling and launching when it is necessary to use clusters. Therefore, this type of cluster where the balloons are all at the same level, will be used on all future multiple balloon flights.

Large plastic balloons have been obtained and will be flown at Alamogordo during the tests to be conducted in July.

## e. APPARATUS AND EQUIPMENT

The main sand ballast-dropping device was improved as a result of experiments at Alamogordo by constructing the ballast tubes of aluminum rather than plastic, and by using stronger paper diaphragms as the frangible support for the ballast.

## f. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Opinion has been strengthened that clusters of meteorological balloons will never be a satisfactory method of achieving constant altitude for long period flights. Various factors which weigh against the success of such flights are: the inherent vertical instability of extensible balloons; the rapid deterioration of neoprene under the rays of the sun (average 6 hour life); the complex set of ballast and lifting equipment required; the variable and indeterminate effects of superheat; and the difficulty of launching a long train assembly, even under the best conditions.

In general, equipment must be strengthened and higher safety factors must be used to withstand the strains of launching and the oscillations of the balloon train in flight.

One or more observation posts, downwind, are needed for Alamo- gerde releases; each post should have theodolite and radiosonde observers and equipment. Better communications between, and coordination of observation posts is vital for satisfactory

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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.