Flight 102: Released from Red Bank, New Jersey, 1023 EST, December 9, 1948
Not recovered
Flight 102 was the first test given to a 30-foot, .001" polyethylene balloon manufactured by General Mills, Inc.; with this balloon a 30-kilogram payload was successfully lifted to 58,000 feet. A combination rate-of-ascent switch and displacement switch was used to control ballast flow, but no record of ballast was made since the ballast meter was broken at launching.
Flight data was received by three ground stations, and the signal from the AM-1 transmitter (with about 10 pounds of batteries) was received for about 400 miles. This was a good test of the distance to which a signal may be transmitted by the AM-1 (N.Y.U) transmitter under daytime conditions. The trajectory of this flight is Figure 48.
[figure]
Figure 48
In the height-time curve (Figure 49) it is interesting to note the descent which began shortly before sunset. There is reason to believe that this fall was being checked by ballast flow. The normal descent after a balloon
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