NYU “Summary of Constant-Level Balloon Flights” (Table No. 7) — Gemini OCR of the scan
Gemini multimodal OCR (model gemini-2.5-flash) of the scanned Table No. 7, “Summary of NYU Constant-Level Balloon Flights” in the public-domain USAF Roswell Report (pt02a, physics.smu.edu/pseudo/UFOs/pt02a.pdf, p. 106 — a sideways/rotated scanned table the report’s text OCR had garbled to nothing). Captured 2026-05-31. US-government work, not copyrighted.
⚠️ Reliability of the flight NUMBERS — read this first. I later rendered the actual scanned table image and inspected it directly. The dates are confirmed by eye — the logged New Mexico flights are 5 June, 7 June, 3 July, 5 July (earliest NM flight = June 5; no June-4 entry exists). But the single-digit FLIGHT-number column is too degraded to read in the scan (only “10” is legible). So the “Flight 4 / 5 / 6 / 7” labels in the table below are Gemini’s sequential row-numbering, NOT verified against the actual digits — Gemini may have numbered the rows 1-2-3-4… in order rather than reading them. Kevin Randle (randle-critique-air-force-mogul) argues there is no numbered Flight 4 (the number was skipped after the June-4 cancellation), which the image can neither confirm nor refute. Treat the dates, launch sites, and critique notes as load-bearing; treat the flight numbers as uncertain/contested.
The image-verified facts: the earliest documented NM flight is 5 June 1947 (“first successful flight carrying a heavy load”; recovery “New Mexico”); the next is 7 June (“unsuccessful, altitude control damaged”; recovery NM); then 3 July and 5 July. There is no June-4 flight in the log — the June-4 launch in Crary’s diary (a sonobuoy-mike-on-cluster-balloons service launch) is unnumbered and absent here. Flights 1–3 were earlier tests (Nov 1946, Dec 1946, April 1947 — the last recovered at Bethlehem, PA). Recovery landing sites are recorded (vaguely, “New Mexico”) for the documented NM flights. For roswell-incident-1947 and 2026-05-31-could-roswell-debris-be-project-mogul.
| FLIGHT | DATE AND LAUNCHING | No. OF BALLOONS | TOTAL WEIGHT ON BALLOON INCLUDING BALLAST (kg) | DESCRIPTION OF ALTITUDE CONTROL | BALLAST F WEIGHT (kg) | RECEPTION Hit (%) | RECEPTION Type | OBSERVATION Flight D. (%) | OBSERVATION Type | DURATION Min. | DURATION Hrs. | CONSTANCY Max. (ft.) | CONSTANCY Const. (ft.) | CONSTANCY % | RECOVERY LANDING SITE | CRITIQUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 Nov. 1946, 1436 CWT | 4 - 350 gm meteorological | 0.7 | Radiosonde, 72.3 mc | 1.0 | None | (empty) | 0 | (empty) | 70 | 0 | 1000 | (empty) | 4 min. 10 | Not known | Balloon balancing load. Free lift from 350 gram meteorological balloon. Successful cutting free of lifter balloon. Balloon did not level off. |
| 2 | 14 Dec. 1946, 1215 EST | 2 - 350 gm meteorological | 0.7 | Radiosonde, 72.3 mc | 1.0 | None | (empty) | 0 | Theodolite 50% | 31 | 0 | 1000 | (empty) | 6 min. 2 | Not known | Balloon balancing load. Free lift from 350 gram meteorological balloon. Successful cutting free of lifter balloon. Balloon did not level off. |
| 3 | 3 April 1947, 1412 MST | 14 - 350 gm meteorological | 4.9 | Radiosonde, 72.8 mc | 13.0 | 60% | with recorder | 60% | Theodolite 66% | 115 | 0 | 58000 | 51000 | 100% | Bethlehem Pennsylvania | Failure due to poor rigging, poor launching technique. 12 lifter balloons, 12 main balloons. Train rose until some balloons burst then descended rapidly. |
| 4 | 5 June 1947, Alamogordo NM, 0509 MST | 29 - 350 gm meteorological | 10.8 | Radiosonde, cosmic ray train, Data gear, Sand ballast | 26.4 | 90% | B-17 | 10% | Theodolite 90% | 348 | 0 | 37000 | 15000 | 100% | New Mexico | First successful flight carrying a heavy load. 3 lifter balloons, 26 main balloons. |
| 5 | 7 June 1947, Alamogordo NM, 0581 MST | 28 - 350 gm meteorological | 9.9 | Radiosonde, cosmic ray train | 26.3 | 95% | B-17 | 50% | Theodolite 95% | 164 | 0 | 37000 | 15000 | 40% | New Mexico | Flight unsuccessful. Altitude control damaged on launching. 4 lifter balloons, 16 main balloons. |
| 6 | 3 July 1947, Alamogordo NM, 0303 MST | 20 - 350 gm meteorological | 7.0 | Radiosonde, blast assembly | 25.7 | 60% | Theodolite | 100% | C-54 | 413 | 0 | 46500 | 35000 | 100% | New Mexico | Best flight thought possible with flabby neoprene balloons, 4 lifter balloons, 14 main balloons. |
| 7 | 5 July 1947, Alamogordo NM, 0501 MST | 1 - 15’ .006” polyethylene | 14.2 | Radiosonde, blast assembly | 16.3 | 52% | Theodolite | 100% | Radar C-45 | 523 | 0 | 18500 | 9000 | 55% | New Mexico | First non-extensible balloon flight. Due to lack of information on data, the altitude control was not actuated. However, flight shows excellent stability of non-extensible balloon. |
| 8 | (empty) | (empty) | 3.0 | Dribbler, compass fluid | 3.0 | (empty) | (empty) | 160/hr | (empty) | 382 min. | 0 | 15100 | 9000 | (empty) | (empty) | Loss of lift due to balloon leakage 1000/hr. |
| 9 | (empty) | (empty) | 5.4 | Dribbler, compass fluid | 3kg | 22 | (empty) | 82 min. | (empty) | 300 | 0 | 2700 | (empty) | (empty) | (empty) | Successful flight with altitude control working. Balloon reported over Albuquerque after 11 hours; Pueblo, Colorado after 24 hours. Fluctuation toward end of transmission believed due to convection currents over desert. Balloon diffusion 10/hr. |