Flight 104: Released from Alamogordo, New Mexico, 1123 MST, Feburary 5, 1949 Recovered at Hale Center, Texas
On this flight a stepwise floating level was achieved by the dropping of weight from the 20-foot, .001" polyethylene balloon. From the height-time curve (Figure 53) the climb from 35,000 feet MSL to 47,000 MSL can be seen. A time clock was used to start the rapid flow of ballast after about one hour at the first level. Following the exhaustion of all ballast, the ballast reservoir itself was released to cause the final rise of the balloon.
By the use of this technique, atmospheric sampling of any kind may be conducted with two or more levels sampled on a single flight. Without using any control to keep the balloon constantly at a given altitude for a long time, the sampling steps should not be expected to be much longer than one hour apiece.
Figure 53