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.
“Blanchard”20 pages
radar station was not troubled by this phenomenon due to its antenna directivity and elevation orientation of 60 degrees. It is believed that the intermediate loss of signal by the radar station is normal because of elevation pattern lobing produced by groundreflection interference which is initiated by secondary antenna lobe transmission. Since this condition exists in the transmitting pattern, it affects both the radar station and its remote receiving station. Current effort is concentrated on improvement of photography and antenna orientation in preparation for additional tests. ## b. Tracking Projects: (1) Radar Tracking Set AN/MPS-6 - A letter was received from Watson Laboratories authorizing changes and modifications of the range circuits necessary for conditions as encountered at this location. The fore part of July was spent in achieving these betterments, and in the installation and orientation of an M-2 optical tracker to be used in conjunction with the MPS-6 and as a tracking aid. Experimental tracking of three balloons furnished and flown by the Atmospheric Group was performed for the dual purpose of checking the signal return of the radar with various reflecting targets, and for precise position data of the balloon equipment for use by the Atmospheric Group. On 19 July, a 130 foot balloon carrying no radar reflector was tracked. Radar contact was made at a range of about 3K yards with signal return being above saturation on the scopes of the MPS-6. Tracking was automatic in Azimuth and Elevation and aided in range. Signal return remained above saturation until a range of 7K yards was read, at which point grass appeared on the scopes and signal to noise averaged about 4 to 1 out to a range of 23K yards where too frequent radar losses necessitated that automatic tracking be abandoned. This balloon was then tracked manually to a maximum range of 27K yards. On 20 July 1948, a weather balloon carrying one kite type reflector was flown and tracked. Contact was made at a range of 3K yards, and signal return was above saturation at all times until a range of 10K was exceeded and grass showed only occasionally out to 24,360 yards. This balloon was obscured by clouds at a range of 33K yards, but tracking was continuous in automatic Azimuth and Elevation throughout its flight, and the maximum range read was 34K yards. On 21 July, a 130 foot balloon, identical with the one flown on 19 July except for three kite reflectors being carried, was flown and tracked. Radar contact was made at a range of 1,510 yards. Grass first appeared on scopes at a range of 24.5K yards, and signal was above saturation to 30K yards. Tracking was continuous and automatic throughout the flight, and a maximum range of 121K yards was reached.
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.