Picture captions above
A POSSIBLE "FLYING DISK" is this radar target, which is being carried aloft by a hydrogen-filled balloon at the army reserve radar station at Fairfax Field [Kansas City, MO]. Lieut. Roger E. Cuddeback, left, explained that the balloon burst between seventy and one hundred thousand feet, allowing the tinfoil-covered target to soar back to earth. He said it was "very likely" that they began spinning as they descended, although the kite-like affairs are tracked by radar only while ascending. Two targets are released daily at the Fairfax installation and at similar stations in Fort Worth, Tex.; Westmorland, Calif.; San Diego, and Tampa, Fla. Shown releasing the balloon and target is Stuart M. Brierley, a civilian employee of the army radar bomb scoring unit--(Kansas City Star photograph). (Kansas City Star-Times, July 9, p. 1)
Army civilian employee loosing an eight-foot balloon with an attached foil-covered target at Kansas City, Kan. Mounted on the truck is a radar cone to plot the course of the target, used to determine direction and velocity of winds of high altitudes. Objects in different parts of America, first believed to be "flying saucers," have been identified as weather balloons. (St. Louise Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1947)
Other Captions
RADAR KITE. An army civilian employee at Kansas City, Kan., looses an eight-foot balloon with an attached foil-covered radar target. Mounted on the truck is a radar cone to plot the course of the target, used to check wind direction and velocity. Army officials believe people have been mistaking this apparatus as a mysterious "flying disc." (Associated Press Wirephoto) (St. Louis Star and Times, July 9, 1947, p. 9)
IT ISN'T A FIERY SAUCER--A Kansas City civilian employee of the Army releases an 8-foot balloon with an attached foil-covered radar target. Mounted on the truck is a radar cone to plot the course of the garget, used to check wind direction and velocity. If you see the balloon don't get excited about "disks." (Louisville (KY) Times, July 9, p. 2)
A RADAR KITE--NOT FLYING DISK
A civilian employee of the Army looses an eight-foot balloon with an attached foil-covered radar target in Kansas City, Kan. Mounted on the truck is a radar cone to plot the course of the garget, used to check wind direction and velocity. This is the same type "kite" which caused excitement Tuesday after its discovery near Roswell, N.M. First reports from the army indicated it was a "flying saucer." (Des Moines (IA) Tribune, July 9, p. 1)
RADAR KITE GOES UP--At Kansas City, Kan., an army civilian employee releases an 8-foot balloon with an attached foil-covered radar target. Mounted on the truck is a radar cone to plot the course of the target, used to check wind direction and velocity. A similar target, found near Roswell, N.M., was erroneously reported to be a "flying disk." (Baltimore Evening Sun, July 7, 1947, p.3)
Radar Target Turns In False Alarm
KANSAS CITY, Kan., July 9.--Army lieutenant and an Army civilian employee release an 8-foot balloon with an attached radar target covered with tinfoil, of the type found on a ranch north of Roswell, N.M. Originally believed to be a "flying saucer" which had fallen to earth, the object was identified by the Army as a high-altitude weather balloon. Mounted on the truck in the photo is a radar cone to record the course of the target, which used to plot wind direction and velocity. (AP Wirephoto) (Buffalo N.Y. Evening News, July 9, 1947, p. 1)
"Flying Disk" Metal foil covered radar target supported by balloon, similar to one which caused false alarm on discovery of a flying disk" in Texas yesterday. The army uses the device to check wind direction and velocity. (Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1947, p. 1)
Wind Test--Not Saucer
BALLOON, RIGHT, TOWS DEVICE "THOUGHT" TO BE DISC
Remnants of an army wind-tester had westerners guessing
(Toledo (OH) Blade, July 9, p. 1)
Balloons used at Scott Field
"Ray wind balloons of the type found in New Mexico are sent up twice daily--at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.--by the army weather station at Scott Field, Ill. [Near St. Louis] The St. Louis weather bureau uses a different type of weather balloon." [Item in the St. Louis Star-Times, July 9, accompanying main Roswell story and Kansas City demo photo.].
Kansas City Star-Times, July 9, 1947, p.1
DISKS ARE THEIR JOB
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Members of Fairfax Radar Unit Launch Them to Measure Wind.
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NEW DISK CLUE A DUD
The flying disk found Monday [July 7] near Adrian, Mo., is a reflector which had been sent out by an army radar bomb scoring unit at Fairfax field. [Kansas City, MO]
Lieut. Roger E. Cuddeback explained yesterday [July 8] that the tinfoil-covered triangular box was part of the unit’s equipment, sent out on balloons. Two reflectors a day leave Fairfax field and usually ascend to about 100,000 feet before the balloon breaks. Then the silvery box falls to the ground.
When he reflectors are released, one at 10 o’clock in the morning and one at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, they are “tracked” with radar equipment to make wind measurements. The reports are sent to the weather bureau as a double check of its measurements.
The balloon released at 3 o’clock yesterday was about eight feet in diameter. On a 10-foot length of cord dangled the target, a concentric arrangement of triangles which presented a broad tinfoil-faced side no matter which way it turned.
Filled with hydrogen (it’s cheaper than helium), the balloon ascended rapidly and almost vertically above the radar bomb scoring station behind the T.W.A. overhaul base at the field. The antenna atop the radar trailer quickly turned its beam fully on the target.
The target went up about 1,400 feet a minute and soon could not be seen. But the balloon, expanding as it hit lighter air, continued in sight for fifteen minutes. From it’s starting point it moved almost directly between the watchers and the sun, the light behind it giving it a brass-colored appearance. It was impossible to distinguish that it was a ball rather than a disk.
Personnel at the base unit are used to watching the balloons to a height of 40,000 feet without the aid of binoculars. The radar plotting room at the station can track targets a lateral distance of about twenty-five miles. Letters from persons finding the not-to-be-returned targets have come from much greater distances.
Lieutenant Cuddeback said that one balloon hit a 119-mile-an-hour wind at 25,000 feet when twenty miles from the airport. That was the fastest wind recorded at Fairfax. With such a velocity, he said a balloon might be carried hundreds of miles but never at 1,000 miles an hour. Other AAF detachments also make regular wind checks.
