Government / Military

Project Mogul

1947

Classified 1947 USAAF balloon program (concept by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University) using high-altitude acoustic balloon trains to detect Soviet nuclear tests. The Air Force's stated explanation for the Roswell debris, identified as Mogul Flight No. 4, launched June 4, 1947 from Alamogordo AAF - a train of neoprene balloons with balsa-and-foil radar reflectors, not an ordinary weather balloon.

Explore Project Mogul in the live connections board → Open the case file

Connections (12)

confirmedRoswell Incident

the USAF-stated source of the Roswell debris (Mogul Flight No. 4, launched June 4, 1947)

Source: USAF Project Mogul report, muller.lbl.gov reproduction

confirmedCharles B. Moore

NYU project engineer who ran its balloon flight operations

Source: USAF Project Mogul report, muller.lbl.gov reproduction

confirmedUSAF Roswell Report (1994-97)

concluded the debris was a Project Mogul balloon train

Source: USAF Roswell Report: Case Closed (1997)

confirmedNYU Balloon Project

NYU balloon group built and launched the constant-level balloon trains Mogul flew (AMC contract W28-099-ac-241)

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

confirmedMaurice Ewing

conceived the acoustic constant-level-balloon concept behind Mogul (fall 1945) and pitched it to Gen. Carl Spaatz

Source: USAF Project Mogul report (muller.lbl.gov); Wikipedia (Maurice Ewing)

confirmedAlbert P. Crary

Field Operations Director; his summer-1947 journal is a primary record of the balloon flights

Source: USAF Project Mogul report; Wikipedia (Albert P. Crary)

confirmedAlbert Trakowski

Army Air Forces project officer for Mogul, Jan 1947 to May 1949

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

confirmedWatson Laboratories

Air Materiel Command lab (Red Bank NJ) that ran Project Mogul

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

confirmedAlamogordo AAF

launched its balloon trains from Alamogordo AAF in summer 1947

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

confirmedAthelstan Spilhaus

led the NYU balloon work but per the USAF report was never told Mogul's classified name or purpose

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

confirmedMarcellus Duffy

Mogul project officer Aug 1946 to Jan 1947, before Trakowski

Source: USAF Project Mogul report

reportedSheridan Cavitt

his 1994 sworn account of foil-and-balsa debris is the primary witness basis claimed for the Mogul explanation

Source: USAF Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction (1994) and Case Closed (1997), muller.lbl.gov reproductions

Part of The Red Thread Files — an independent, evidence-first investigation into the UAP, USO, and consciousness question. Confidence labels (confirmed / reported / disputed) are an automated approximation based on the wording and directness of each source, not a verdict. Corrections: [email protected].