Air Forces, in conjunction with Project MOGUL.¹⁰ The NYU “balloon group” was to develop and fly constant-level balloons while simultaneously developing telemetering equipment to transmit data obtained in the upper atmosphere.¹¹ Group members launched, tracked, and recorded data only in regard to constant-level balloon flight and telemetering of information. They did not have access to observations and measurements that had military applications. MOGUL, in other words, was conducted as a compartmented, classified project in which participants knew only what they needed to know, and no more. Due to the compartmentation, balloon flights made by NYU were divided into two categories, “research” and “service.”¹² Research flights tested balloon controls and telemetering systems and were fully reported in the unclassified NYU reports.¹³ A total of 110 research flights were flown during the contract. Service flights were flown at the direction of Watson Laboratory personnel, but the military purpose was Top Secret. These flights carried classified equipment, which could not be fully reported in the unclassified NYU documents. Further evidence of the exclusion of classified information from the reports is the lack of data for balloons flown in association with the Sandstone nuclear tests held in April and May of 1948.¹⁴ In recent interviews with former NYU personnel, Dr. Athelstan F. Spilhaus, NYU Director of Research, and Professor Charles B. Moore, NYU Constant-Level Balloon Project Engineer, stated that they were never informed of the classified name, MOGUL, nor did they ever have access to the scientific data that was obtained by the USAAF as a result of their efforts. In response to inquiries, professional or casual, project personnel simply said that they were engaged in balloon research.¹⁵
The first balloon launches associated with Project MOGUL were carried out at several locations on the east coast of the United States.¹⁶ However, unfavorable winds, conflicts with commercial air traffic, and the need to gather data on the V-2 flights currently being conducted at White Sands Proving Ground, NM, led the NYU group to conduct further tests from Alamogordo AAF.¹⁷ The NYU group would make three “field trips” during the summer of 1947 for test and evaluation, labeling them Alamogordo I, II, and III. The majority of the balloon flights over the next four years originated from Alamogordo AAF.
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10. Research Division, College of Engineering, NYU, Technical Report No. 93.03, Constant Level Balloons, Final Report, Mar 1, 1951 (hereafter NYU, Final Report), p. 3.
11. Research Division, College of Engineering, NYU, Technical Report 93–02, Constant Level Balloons, Sect 1, General, Nov 15, 1949, p. 5.
12. NYU, Final Report, p. 13.
13. Research Division, College of Engineering, NYU, Technical Report No. 1, Constant Level Balloon, Apr 1, 1948, Table VII, “Summary of NYU Constant-Level Balloon Flights” (hereafter NYU, Technical Report No. 1, Table VII); ibid., Technical Report No. 93.02, Constant Level Balloons, Sect 3, Summary of Flights.
14. “Sonic Balloon Test Kwajalein.”
15. Athelstan F. Spilhaus, C.S. Schneider, C.B. Moore, “Controlled-Altitude Free Balloons,” Journal of Meteorology, 5 (Aug 1948): 130–137.
16. NYU, Technical Report No. 1, Table VII.
17. Research Division, College of Engineering, NYU, Progress Report No. 6, Constant Level Balloon, Sect II, June 1947 (hereafter Progress Report No. 6, Sect II), p. 4.