Flight 82: Released from Alamogordo, New Mexico, 0515 MST, August 10, 1948 Recovered at Roswell, New Mexico
This flight was made with a 20-foot, .001" polyethylene balloon carrying a load to 54,000 feet and sustained by a fixed-leak orifice control, expending ballast at about 525 grams per hour. With 4500 grams of ballast aboard the balloon should have been increasingly buoyant for $ 8 \frac{1}{2} $ hours after release. From the barogram (Figure 35) it may be seen that the "ceiling" did rise, at
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RELEASED AT ALAMOGORDO, N.M.- 0511 MST, 10 AUG 1948 DESCENDED AT ROSWELL,N.M.- 1630 MST, 10 AUG 1948 DURATION- 11 $ \frac{1}{2} $ hrs
Figure 35
a rate of 700 feet per hour (525 grams of ballast was lost each hour), for about $ 7_{2}^{1} $ hours, and then generally accelerating descent was experienced.
On this flight, radio reception was maintained for the entire air-borne period of 11 hours. Flight 82 is a good example of flight using a single fixed-leak orifice for altitude control by ballast dropping.