Project Mogul
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Project Mogul (sometimes referred as Operation Mogul) was a top secret project involving high altitude balloons, started in 1947, whose primary purpose was long-distance detection of atomic bomb tests in the Soviet Union through detection of the sound waves in the upper atmosphere generated by the explosions. It was run by Dr. James Peoples, assisted by Dr. Albert P. Crary.
One of the requirements of the balloons was that they maintain a relatively constant altitude over a prolonged period of time. The design proved useful for other purposes. Project Mogul was the forerunner of the Skyhook balloon program, started in the late 1940s, and another spying program involving overflights and photo-surveillance of the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, called Project Moby Dick. The latter raised storms of protest from the Soviets. The balloons were also used for cosmic ray experiments.
The early Mogul balloons consisted of large clusters of rubber meteorological balloons. However, these were quickly replaced by enormous balloons made of polyethylene plastic. These were more durable, leaked less helium gas, and also were better at maintaining a constant altitude than the early rubber balloons. Constant altitude control and polyethylene balloons were the two major innovations of Project Mogul.
[edit] Project Mogul and the Roswell UFO incident
In 1994/5, the Air Force published a report claiming Mogul Flight #4, launched from Alamogordo, New Mexico on June 4, 1947, was what crashed near Roswell, New Mexico and sparked the Roswell UFO incident. The report claimed a combination of personnel unfamiliar with this sort of equipment who thought it might be one of numerous "flying saucers" being reported at the time and the desire on the part of the military to maintain secrecy on Mogul eventually led to the belief from many that the military was covering up a recovered alien spacecraft.
