Fig. 23. Project HIGH DIVE
anthropomorphic dummy
launch, White Sands Proving
Ground, N.M., June 11, 1957.
(U.S. Air Force photo)
1.2
High Altitude Balloon
Dummy Drops
From 1953 to 1959, anthropomorphic dummies were used by the U.S. Air
Force Aero Medical Laboratory as part of the high altitude aircraft escape projects HroH
DIVE andExCELSIOR.42 The object of these studies was to devise a method to return a
pilot or astronaut to earth by parachute, if forced to escape at extreme altitudes.43
Anthropomorphic dummies were transported to altitudes up to 98,000
feet by high altitude balloons. The dummies were then released for a period of
free-fall while body movements and escape equipment performance were recorded
by a variety of instruments. Forty-three high altitude balloon flights carrying 67
anthropomorphic dummies were launched and recovered throughout New Mexico
between June 1954 and February 1959.44 Due to prevailing wind conditions,
operational factors and ruggedness of the terrain, the majority of dummies
impacted outside the confines of military reservations in eastern New Mexico,
near Roswell, and in areas surrounding the Tularosa Valley in south central
New Mexico.45 Additionally, 30 dummies were dropped by aircraft over White
Sands Proving Ground, N.M. in 1953. In 1959, 150 dummies were dropped by
aircraft over Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (possibly accounting for alleged alien
"sightings" at that location). 46
23