PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94 31
Q: so you made your plan in New York to fly •.• Your
primary research was the acoustical detect •••
A: That's correct.
Q: secondary was refining the technique of constant level
balloons.
A: And that was on hold until we got the delivery of the
polyethylene balloon that was scheduled for the end of June. so
the first of June we came, really, just for the test flight of
microphones, doing service flights for Watson Laboratories.
Q: To fly the balloons in association with •••
A: To fly meteorological balloons, tracked by a Watson Lab
radar on the ML-307B targets that I think we brought with us.
Q: And you launched these balloons in conjunction with V-2
firings?
A: Those went independently. Albert Crary was monitoring
the V-2 firings.
Q: That was with the ground microphones?
A: You're right, I beg your pardon. As you'll find in the
diary, that we launched Flight 8, these cluster balloons, we
launched those at 3:00 o'clock in the morning for a V-2 firing.
You're quite right. I'd forgotten that. We launched those in
the morning, then the rocket got scrubbed while Flight 8 was in
the air, and we were out of plastic balloons that day in early
July -- this is jumping ahead to early July -- and we inflated
meteorological balloons for the delayed firing of the V-2 rocket
on the afternoon of July 3rd, you'll see. Then there was an
accident over at White Sands and the V-2 got scrubbed a second
time. What was Flight 9, we launched Flight 9, as you will see
in here, as a dummy flight, and it probably had radar targets on
it.
Let me just read this. This is Crary's summary for the week
of 30 June-S July 1947. "Balloon tests 7, 8, 9, and 10 off this
week. Test 7 slated for July 1 postponed to July 2nd because
equipment not ready. A hundred tanks with helium obtained from
Amarillo Monday evening. Trakowski went over in a c-54 and
picked them up. Also radiosonde receivers set up by NYU but
sonobuoy not operable. Test 7 at dawn, July 2nd, with Pi Ball.
one hour, first falling with the autolights. Winds were very
light, and balloons up between base and mountains most of the
time. Included a cluster of met balloons, followed by c-54
several hours, and finally landed in mountains near road, south
cloudcroft. Before gear could be recovered, most of it had been
stolen. Station operating in north hangar, Cloudcroft and
Roswell. Shots made repeatedly at Site 4 and picked up goods