Flight 93: Released from Alamogordo, New Mexico, 0712 MST, September 1, 1948 Recovered at Neuvas Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico
This daytime flight with a 20-foot, .001" polyethylene balloon went up with defective ballast controls; consequently the flight's main value is in showing the natural stability of such a balloon without any altitude controls. As with Flight 88, which went to about the same height (40,000 feet), this balloon remained at a near-floating level for less than two hours (Figure 42). It is interesting to compare this duration at 40,000 feet with the four-hour duration at 50,000 feet shown on Flight 70 and 71. Probably the effect of reduced pressure on diffusion of the lifting gas is a major factor contributing to the longer floating period at the lower pressure.
Figure 42