Documents / Report

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…
## 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

Cited by

Cases discussed

About this file

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.