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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.
“Headquarters”32 pages
and pin holes from being made in the fabric. For example, the film is so easily injured that it is not safe to lay a folded-up balloon on a bare table-top or other hard surface on which sand or splinters might be found. For this reason a clean ground cloth of canvas should always be used for the lay-out of the balloon. Once the balloon has been laid out on the ground cloth, it is made ready for inflation and the rip line of the flight-termination gear is inserted into the cell (see Section III, C). ## B. Use of Shot Bags and Releasing Device While the balloon is being inflated it is necessary to hold it in position. Under conditions of calm wind, this may be accomplished by simple fastening heavy weights to the loading ring and allowing the entire balloon envelope to rise freely above its anchor. Since only 10 to 20% of the balloon is full at the surface when the inflation is complete, it is possible to restrict the volume filled and so cut down the area exposed to the wind on days which are not calm. The volume required can be expressed as the length of the bubble collected at the head or top of the balloon. Having determined the desired length (see Section IV, B), the remainder of the balloon may be held down on the ground cloth by weighted bags wrapped in protective sheets of polyethylene (see Figures 22 and 23). Elliptical shot bags, weighing 100 pounds, are used to hold the base of the bubble to be inflated. Twenty-pound sand bags are used to keep the appendix closed to prevent filling of the balloon with air and to restrict the uninflated folds of the balloon. A more elaborate system of holding the gas in the upper section of the bubble makes use of the General Mills releasing device shown in Figures 24 and 25. Mounted on wheels, this mechanism is rolled into position with the head of the balloon lying across the platform. The protective roller arms lock into position holding the bubble until launching. This device is used with large loads when shot bags might roll or slide off the balloon. As the arms open outward as well as upward when the locking pins are removed, it is necessary to position the platform with the arms opening away from the bubble. ## C. Inflation Techniques When the balloon is manufactured, a polyethylene inflation tube about 4" in diameter is inserted. This tube extends from a few feet outside the appendix to near the top of
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.