Project Mogul
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Charles Moore displays a radar reflector similar
to those flown from trains of balloons in Project Mogul
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A secret program conducted by the U.S. Air Force and directed by Charles
B. Moore in the late 1940s to develop balloon-borne equipment capable of
giving early warning of distant Soviet nuclear explosions. Large helium-filled
balloons were attached to instrument arrays and launched from Alamogordo
Army Air Field in New Mexico in June and early July 1947 into the stratosphere
where the acoustic signals from a remote nuclear detonation would have been
detectable. They may have been responsible for a number of UFO
reports around the time of the flying saucer
flap of 1947. In particular, the 1996 Air Force investigation of the
Roswell Incident concluded that the crash
of New York University Flight #4, which carried three radar reflectors as
shown in the photo and, before being lost, was tracked to within 17 miles
of the spot where rancher Mac Brazel later recovered debris, was probably
to blame (see Roswell Incident, USAF Report).
Somewhat bizarrely, the purplish flowers noted by the rancher who discovered
the Roswell wreckage, and later referred to by others more luridly as "alien
hieroglyphics", turned out to be decorations by the New York toy manufacturer
who had supplied the tape used in assembling the arrays.1
Reference
- Thomas, D. "The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul," Skeptical
Inquirer, 15 (July-August 1995).
Related entry
• Cold War, linked to
UFO reports
Related category
• UFOs
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