Released from Alamogordo, New Mexico, 0733 MST, September 8, 1948 Not recovered
On Flight 96 a .001", 20-foot polyethylene balloon was used to carry a ballast meter to about 45,000 feet to determine the flow required at that altitude using an automatic ballast valve. No record of ballast flow was telemetered during this flight, but it is not known whether the meter was inoperative, or the valve itself failed--possibly due to failure of a squib to detonate at the combined low pressure and cold temperature aloft.
From the height-time curve, Figure 44, it will be noted that the balloon was in a near-floating condition for about four hours when the transmitter
Figure 44
signal gave out. There is no way of telling whether the constant-level flight obtained was due to the natural buoyancy of the balloon or the action of the automatic ballast valve.