Unidentified flying objects -- Sightings and encounters -- New Mexico -- Roswell
I became involved in high altitude balloon development while an
undergraduate student at New York University (NYU). Following
graduation I was hired by the Air Force at Holloman AFB and worked
continuously as both a meteorologist and aerospace engineer at
the Balloon Branch from 1951 until my retirement in 1981. My job
responsibilities were to forecast the weather and fly by remote
control, high altitude balloons for many different scientific
projects. During this time. I became internationally recognized as
an authority on high altitude balloon trajectory forecasting. I
have published numerous technical reports and articles.
The first project in which I was involved, while still an
undergraduate student at NYU, was the acoustical detection of
nuclear explosions. The name of the project, Mogul, was classified
and I didn’t know this name until several years ago. Based on
my experience with this project I am certain project Mogul was
responsible for some portions of what has become to be known as the
“Roswell Incident”.
Following project Mogul I was involved in perfecting high
altitude balloon technology and made many test flights with large
polyethylene balloons from Holloman AFB. I worked extensively on
atmospheric sampling projects and biological flights in which
the balloons lifted small animals to altitude for cosmic ray
experiments. I also worked on the Moby Dick Project that collected
meteorological data and the classified Gopher (119L) reconnaissance
project.
I was relied upon to forecast the weather, conduct climatological
studies, predict balloon trajectories, and to hit with precision,
ground targets both on and off the White Sands Missile Range.
Balloon trajectories in New Mexico below the tropopause, are
predominantly towards the east-northeast, when launched from
Holloman AFB with the exception of July and August when balloons
remained over the Holloman area. At high altitude, above the
tropopause, trajectories are generally westerly during the summer
and easterly during the spring, fall, and winter. As a result
these winds, the Holloman balloon branch recovered many, probably
hundreds, of balloons and scientific payloads from the Roswell, NM
area over the years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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