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…
With these and subsequent rigging lines the following technique was used:
on all lines a strength test was made and a safety factor of at least ten
to one was demanded. Most of the lines used are of braided or woven nylon.
ohosen for its low weight-strength ratio. To facilitate handling of the
line segments each length is prepared with a small hook on either end. The
knots employed are double carriok bends.
The total length of the early trains reached as much as eight hundred
feet. making them extremely difficult to release. A system of restraining
the load line was evolved with two winches paying out restraining lines
while balloons and equipment were added to the load line. .In this way the
pull of the balloons themselves and the much greater strain caused by even
light winds was held by winches. When the final piece of equipment was
clear of the ground (crwhen the entire flight line was under tension with
the lowest element being held back) a gunpowder squib was electrically fired
to sever the restraining lines near the bottom of the balloon. Figure 27
shows the ahun.inum "cannon" holding the gunpowder, the two winch lines and
a light line used to pull the restraining· lines away £ram the load line after
firing. The load line has not yet been attached in Figure 21. but will be
fixed just above the "cannon".
When the restraining line is severed, there is danger of a pendulum
swing of the train causing the lower components to be dashed into the ground.
To avoid this action, the lowest piece of equipment is usually held by a
member of the crew on the back of a truck. By driving downwind raster than
the surface wind speed, the pull of the balloon can be resolved into only a
vertical component and the equipment may be safely released when the truck
gets under the balloon.
With later plastic cell flights, this method of launching was also
used in cases of light wind. \'vhen windG of about 6 knots are enooun"tered,
- 24 -

Cases discussed

About this file

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.