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.
“Headquarters”32 pages
## VIII. ANALYSIS During and following the flight it is customary to analyze the behavior of the balloon. Two curves are usually drawn when data is available for their preparation. The first of these is a time-height curve which gives the altitude of the balloon at all times with respect to sea level. On this curve also it is customary to plot the temperature data and ballast flow data when such has been recorded. In some cases it has been found useful to plot a profile of the terrain over which the balloon is passing. The second diagram usually prepared is the trajectory of the balloon, and again it may be prepared with respect to the terrain over which the balloon was passing. That is to say, it is plotted on an aircraft map of the area, with positions and heights plotted every ten minutes. Figures 38 and 39 show sample plots. ## IX. GENERAL MILLS 7-, 30-, AND 70-FOOT BALLOONS The altitudes reached and loads which may be carried by the General Mills balloons other than the 20-foot cell are shown in Table 4, Appendix II. Graph 3, Appendix II may be used for interpolation of the tabulated values to give the relationship between floating altitude and gross load, and Graph 4 shows the altitude sensitivity at various heights. It has been assumed that helium is the lifting gas. Graph 1, Appendix II is useable for all of these balloons to determine the amount of free lift which is needed to give a desired rate of rise. To launch a 7-foot balloon, it is not necessary to utilize the elaborate technique of the larger balloons. A can of sand is made to weigh the same amount as the required gross lift (equipment weight plus free lift), and attached to the load ring. Inflation from a single tank may be made inside any building with relatively large doors and when the balloon just lifts the inflation weights it may be attached to the equipment line, carried outdoors and released. In light winds the equipment may be released with a hand-over-hand paying out of the line. If there is too much wind for this method, the equipment is laid out downwind and the balloon released so as to pass over the pieces of gear and pick them up while rising. A 7-foot balloon being inflated is seen in Figure 40. The appendix which is shown is made of a flattened 2-foot length of inflation tube, from a 20-foot balloon, without stiffeners. Such a balloon has been sustained with a fixed ballast leak
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.