The Roswell Report: Case Closed

the ground, expand at altitude to volumes large enough to contain many
jet airliners. Polyethylene balloons flown by the U.S. Air Force have
reached altitudes of 170,000 feet and lifted payloads of 15,000 pounds. 73
During the late 1940's and 1950's, a characteristic associated
with the large, newly invented, polyethylene balloons, was that they were
often misidentified as flying saucers. 74 During this period, polyethylene
balloons launched from Holloman AFB, generated flying saucer reports
on nearly every flight. 75 There were so many reports that police,
broadcast radio, and newspaper accounts of these sightings were used by
Holloman technicians to supplement early balloon tracking techniques. 76
Balloons launched at Holloman AFB generated an especially high number
of reports due to the excellent visibility in the New Mexico region. Also,
the balloons, flown at altitudes of approximately 100,000 feet, were
illuminated before the earth during the periods just after sunset and just
before sunrise. In this instance, receiving sunlight before the earth, the
plastic balloons appeared as large bright objects against a dark sky. Also,
with the refractive and translucent qualities of polyethylene, the balloons
appeared to change color, size, and shape.
The large balloons generated UFO reports based on their
radar tracks. 77 This was due to large metallic payloads that weighed
up to several tons and echoed radar returns not usually associated with
balloons. In later years, balloons were equipped with altitude and
position reporting transponders and strobe lights that greatly diminished
the numbers of both visual and radar UFO sightings.
One classic misidentification of a Holloman balloon that was
mistaken for a UFO, was launched on October 27, 1953.78 According
to the following account published in a widely distributed 1958 history
of Air Force balloon operations, Contributions of Balloon Operations to
Research and Development at the Air Force Missile Development Center
Holloman Air Force Base, N.Mex. 1947-1958, a suspected Holloman
balloon was tracked both visually and by radar over London, England
on November 3, 1953.
"English accounts of the incident contained such statements
as 'tremendous speed,' 'practically motionless,' 'circular or spherical
and white in color,' 'emitting or reflecting a fierce light.' Altitude was
reported as 61,000 feet-and as no research balloon had recently been
sent up from Britain, there was ample room for local saucer enthusiasts to
claim the 'unidentified flying object' as proof of their theories. A much
likelier explanation, however, is that this was really the balloon launched
from Holloman on 27 October." 79
High Altitude Balloon Payloads
Over the years, payloads transported by high altitude
polyethylene balloons ranged from simple radio transmitters to
anthropomorphic dummies to sophisticated satellite components and
NASA interplanetary space probes. Many of these payloads, some of
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