Documents / FOIA release

roswell

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 993 pages · text from the file's own layer

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published in 1995 by Headquarters United States Air Force. It was written in response to Representative Steven H. Schiff's request and a General Accounting Office audit, and it contains Col. Richard L. Weaver's report and 1st Lt. James McAndrew's synopsis, along with attachments, appendices and photographs. The report says researchers found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concludes that the 1947 debris came from a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • p. 43 …to the sun for only a few days. The plasticizers and antioxidants in the neoprene would…
  • p. 205 …ashes after exposure to the sun for only a few days. The balloon material and radar…
  • p. 221 …to the sun. Q: Is this the neoprene type or the ••• A: That's the neoprene…
  • p. 230 …such as the balloon material degraded, and maybe fused in the hot sun? 14 A: I…
  • p. 282 …We worked in the old Sun newspaper building in downtown Baltimore. Q: They had intelligence personnel…
  • p. 465 …the values of superheat ob- tained by the gas when the balloon is in the sun…
  • p. 484 …Superheat and Its Effects The effect of the heatin~ of lifting gas by the sun's…
  • p. 489 …Since the effect of the sun in heating the lifting gas decreases the effect of different…
  • p. 524 …when the ex- ternal temperature was measured, since no adequate protection from the sun was available…
  • p. 525 …Daytime flights had the added advantage or heating from the sun. The temperature of the lifting…
  • p. 541 …in the aneroid val~e as intermittent clouds shut off' the sun, and (3) the overcompensation…
  • p. 547 …stmset, and the balloon took on superheat whioh was lost_when the sun went down. ntis…
  • p. 558 …the transmitter was not insulated, and there was no heat to be gained .from the sun…
  • p. 570 …Since the sun had set between the third and -40-
  • p. 579 during the sunset descent (caused when the superheated helium lost the sun's heating ei'i…
  • p. 591 …that seen earlier with the balloon gas being warmed by the sun to acquire a superheat…
  • p. 666 …the changing buoyancy of the balloon as cloud masses intermittently shielded it from the sun's…
  • p. 736 …the subst;q.uent descent, superheating of the balloons by the nsmg sun would cause the…
  • p. 739 …Flight termination was usually due to deteriora- tion of the balloon caused by the sun. In…
  • p. 740 …the ambient tem- perature after the sun had risen. The automatic ballast valve operates. when the…
  • p. 801 …April 14 Sun. Down to lab this am with Joe looking for G9A files. Jim Peoples…
  • p. 802 …Discussed with Crane possibilities of getting sound through the ground part of the ocean sound channel…
  • p. 803 …Over to Jim and Rowes tonight and to Euzzards Bay bowling, l'ay 5 Sun. L…
  • p. 806 …Stayed at Amarillo - at Clinton Hotel Jan 19 Sun Left Amarillo about 1130 CST IC.ent…
  • p. 808 …Correlated between the ~ower and Dona sites for se·reral sources. 'o!orked total travel times…
  • p. 810 …April 6 Sun. Checked clocks. Cleaned out hanger and emptied trash out at East White Sands…
  • p. 811 …April 20 Sun. Worked on plans for bombing runs and V2 monitoring. April 21 Mon. Alamogordo…
  • p. 812 …All equipment loaded on plane this pm. ~ay J-4 Sat, Sun. Left Alamogordo about 9…
  • p. 815 …29 June (Sun) NYU personnel and some of Watson Lab men working today with equipment in…
  • p. 816 …July 1a Sun. to cabins in Ohio just out of Springfield. July 1 Mon. To cabins…
  • p. 852 …4C.~~~ies• .tJi~J.tl~e ..• a 'telemeteririg ·device to indicate· the rate of ballast flow…
  • p. 861 …a sun- set. (3) By adding altitude control equipment, it is possible to maintain the balloon…
PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94 17
A: What the wind did.
The description that Brazel gives here that everything would
weigh about five pounds when it was all together, is more than
you would have gotten from a single balloon.
Q: Those were measured in terms of 300 to 500 grams or
something like that?
A: Three hundred and fifty only. At that time we didn't
have any bigger balloons than 350 grams, so the balloons would
have been 350 grams.
Q: About one pound.
A: correct. And the targets are nominally maybe a quarter
of a pound.
Q: Those targets are only four to five ounces?
A: Here was the specification spelled out for it.
Approximate weight, 100 grams. These, as I say, are somewhat
heavier than the ones we had.
Q: You indicated that the balsa wood was coated with some
sort of glue such as Elmer's glue.
A: That's my memory. It wasn't completely coated. Some
of it was and some of it wasn't.
Q: Some of the balsa wood is fairly dense, as far as being
durable, and one of the descriptions concerning this "wood-like"
material was that you couldn't dent it with your fingernail. So
if you have a fairly dense balsa wood coated with a glue, it may
be quite possible that a person would not be able to put their
fingernail in it.
A: That's correct. It's my memory that the reflective
material was more aluminum foil than here. These are second or
third iteration targets, as evidenced by this picture, wherever
that picture is down in here of the 1948 flight. It certainly
looks more aluminum-foil like.
Q: What year were you discharged from active duty?
A: 1 46.
Q: Before you left active duty, while you were still
working with Duffy and Spilhaus, did they invite you to join the
staff at New York University, or to continue your studies there?
A: I came back from overseas and was assigned to Colonel
Duffy's, he had a little flight detachment assigned to him with a
B-29 and a B-25 and some other aircraft. I ended up being the

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FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 993 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.