“Project Mogul”60+ pages
- p. 3 …The importance of attachment 32, Lieutenant McAndrew's synopsis, derives from his
description of Project MOGUL…
- p. 13 …Photographs, Project MOGUL Balloon Trains
27. Table No.7, Summary of NYU Constant-Level Balloon Flights…
- p. 14 …Crane as Project Officer for MOGUL and TORRID, June 18,
1946
9. Memo, Maj Gen Curtis…
- p. 15 …Army GR-3 Sound Ranging Set, TNT Detonation, and Project MOGUL PT Boat
Project MOGUL Neoprene…
- p. 18 …Project MOGUL resulted from two important post-World War II priorities set by the
Commanding General…
- p. 19 …However, too much activity
was going on for the project to remain completely hidden. A MOGUL…
- p. 25 …balloon project, designed to
attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear tests, known as Project MOGUL. Additionally,
several…
- p. 41 …Its name was Project MOGUL (Atch 19).
Project MOGUL was a then-sensitive, classified project, whose…
- p. 42 …These interviews confirmed that Project MOGUL was a compartmented,
sensitive effort. The NYU group was responsible…
- p. 43 …so because
he was either aware of Project MOGUL and was trying to deflect interest from…
- p. 44 …Trakowski provided specific details on Project MOGUL and described
how the security for the program was…
- p. 45 In order to provide a more detailed discussion of the specifics of Project MOGUL
and how…
- p. 46 …First, the
recovered wreckage was from a Project MOGUL balloon. There were no "alien"
passengers therein…
- p. 48 …Illustration of Project MOGUL "Balloon Trains"
26. Two Photos of Project MOGUL "Balloon Trains"
27. Log…
- p. 183 …It was called Project Mogul.
SC: Never heard of it.
RW: Mogul was designed to run…
- p. 195 …Equipments used in
project "Mogul" are common to other systems or sets that are now class…
- p. 201 …secrecy agreements for various projects, and I understand that this activity
(Mogul, etc. is now declassified…
- p. 205 …I was not
aware that the project had the name MOGUL until1992 when I was contacted…
- p. 206 …The Watson Lab gear was the microphone equipment specifically for MOGUL.
The idea was proposed in…
- p. 213 …I have also been contacted by several researchers and writers and discussed project Mogul
and provided…
- p. 217 …We have gone through many of the various technical
documents related to Project Mogul and some…
- p. 218 …Project Mogul was probably involved in this incident. The
materials that were being used in Mogul…
- p. 220 …it
was offered and was the project officer on Mogul. I have some
paperwork here from…
- p. 226 …proving ground across the Tulerosa Valley; and Project
Mogul.
I joined the NYU group in January…
- p. 237 …So you were the project engineer?
A: I was the project engineer, and Schneider was the…
- p. 241 …I
interpreted that as saying someone was covering up on Mogul.
That was my interpretation when…
- p. 242 …so you went, moving into Mogul, you did go on the June
and July field trips…
- p. 244 …The balloons that you did launch for Project Mogul and
some of the other test balloons…
- p. 246 …Mogul was classified,
and he said it had the same classification as the Manhattan
Project had…
- p. 255 …But the
aircraft operation here was entirely to support Project Mogul.
We didn't consider ourselves…
- p. 273 …The balloon was not a weather balloon, but was then a classified project, Project
MOGUL, which…
- p. 274 …I came into being as
the project officer on Project MOGUL about November of 1946. I…
- p. 275 …I remained project officer of Project MOGUL through our move of the
laboratory from Watson Laboratories…
- p. 278 …But we were
aware of the sensitivity and of the weakness of security in Project MOGUL…
- p. 281 …At some point in Project MOGUL did you utilize equipment based at Roswell Army Air
Field…
- p. 289 26
Photographs
Project MOGUL Balloon Trains
- p. 299 …60's; we have no reference to Project MOGUL"
Ms Betsy xxxxxxxxxx
d) Sperry Hagley Museum…
- p. 300 …Archivist (202) 504-5416
"no records of Project Mogul; recommend checking with DOE historian or the…
- p. 318 …The project's classified code name was MOGUL.
The current investigation discovered that an experimental ba1loon…
- p. 319 PROJECT MOGUL
Project MOGUL was first conceived by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University,
NY, and…
- p. 320 …Over the course of the project, MOGUL
had three military project officers, or "chiefs": Maj Robert…
- p. 321 Air Forces, in conjunction with Project MOGUL. 10 The NYU "balloon group" was
to develop and…
- p. 322 …advance team made the first launch for Project MOGUL from Alamogordo
(NYU flight no. 3). The…
- p. 323 …Radiosondes, along with aircraft, were to be
the primary method to track the Project MOGUL balloons…
- p. 326 …Over the course of Project MoGUL,
several balloons had landed and been recovered from that area…
- p. 327 …There, it was identified
by Colonel Duffy, under whose purview Project MOGUL operated. Colonel Duffy,
a…
- p. 328 …briefing bf the
projects, including constant-level balloons, that made up Project MOGUL.40 While
crashed…
- p. 329 …Pritchard, a Watson Laboratory Project Officer (not assigned to MOGUL)
stationed at Alamogordo AAF. This article…
- p. 330 …One instance, on April 7, 1947, Crary gave Pritchard
a "progress report for MOGUL project to…
- p. 331 …Project MoGUL Classification Letter
10. Drawing of "Hieroglyphics" by Prof. C.B. Moore
11. Alamogordo Daily…
- p. 411 …Crane as
Project Officer for MOGUL and
TORRID
June 18, 1946
- p. 810 …Gave him memo of progress report
for MOGUL project to date, talked to Lt Dyer of…
- p. 975 …a strong influence on the high-
priority Project MoGUL (see Apps 8 and 9 ). He also…
- p. 979 …Crary (left) and technician
Phil Chantz taking a break during
Project MOGUL operations at White
Sands…
- p. 980 …received and
resulted in the initiation
of Project MOGUL (see
App 6 ). Photo Courtesy of
Woods…
- p. 981 …Marcellus Duffy, a highly capable scientific
research officer, was a MOGUL project officer. Maj. Gen.
Curtis…
- p. 982 MOGUL Project Scientist Dr.
James Peoples. Peoples's deci-
sion not to bring the radiosonde
tracking…
- p. 984 …This modified PT boat that was assigned to Project MOGUL is
shown here off Block Island…
- p. 985 Launch of Project MOGUL neoprene balloons, Alamogordo AAF,
NM, June 1947. While awaiting the experimental polyethylene…
- p. 986 …Moore (right and reaching down) prepares
experimental Project MOGUL microphones for launch (Holloman AFB, Alamogor-
do…
On July 7, as the NYU group members were winding down their worlk and
preparing to return to New York City, a train of events began to unfold at
Roswell AAF, 60 miles away. Roswell AAF was home of the 509th Bomb Group
of the Strategic Air Command's Eighth Air Force, the only unit in the :world
capable of delivering nuclear weapons. It now appears that the debris from
MOGUL flight no. 4 had come ·to earth on the plains east of the Sacramento
Mountains, about 70 miles from the launch point at Alamogordo AAF (Atch 7).
The fact it descended there was not unusual. Over the course of Project MoGUL,
several balloons had landed and been recovered from that area. In fact, in August
1947, the NYU group had to receive special permission from the Civil Aero~autics
Administration to continue to launch balloons from Alamogordo AAF, since
"balloons have been descending outside of the area [White Sands PJtoving
Ground] in the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico."36 According to the sole :living
participant in the recovery, Sheridan Cavitt, he, Major Marcel, and MSgt William
Rickett gathered some of the material, which appeared to resemble "bamboo type
square sticks, one quarter to one half inch square," that was "very light"-reflect-
ing material-and a "black box, like a weather instrument." Cavitt believEjd this
material to be consistent with what he knew to be a weather balloon. This debris,
would soon become, for a short time, the focus of national and even worl~wide
attention when it was thought to be a "flying disc."
On July 8, the same day that the NYU/Watson Laboratory group dewarted
Alamogordo, the Public Information Office of Roswell AAF announced the
recovery of a "flying disc" and that it would be flown to Fort Worth AAF for
further examination, How could experienced military personnel have confl!l,sed a
weather balloon for a "flying disc"? The answer was this was not an ordinary
"weather balloon." Typical weather balloons employed a single, 350:-gram
neoprene balloon and a radiosonde for measuring temperature, atmospheric
pressure, and humidity, housed in a cardboard box. If it was to be tracked by
radar for wind-speed measurement, a single corner reflector was added (Atch 8).
The balloon that was found on the Foster Ranch consisted of as many as 2f3 350-
gram balloons spaced at 20 foot intervals, several radar targets (3 to 5), plastic
ballast tubes, parchment parachutes, a black "cutoff" box containing portions of
a weather instrument, and a sonabuoy (Atch 3). After striking the groun~, the
radar reflectors, constructed of very light materials for minimum weight, would
tear and break apart, spreading out over a large area when pulled across the
ground by balloons that still possessed some buoyancy. It should also be
understood that the term "flying disc" was not at this time synonymous with
"space ship," It denoted a disc-shaped flying object of unknown (or suswected
Soviet) origin.
Before the announcement was made, the "disc" was flown to Fort Worth AAF,
at the direction of Brig Gen Roger Ramey, Commander, Eighth Air Force. General
Ramey personally inspected the "disc," became skeptical, and summoned the base
36. NYU, Technical Report No. 1, Table VII, p. 43.