Page 23 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

They’re Balloons Dammit Not Alien UFOs! 23

Rob McConnell: “I Told

You So!

They’re Balloons Dammit

NOT

Alien UFOs!”

Continued from Page 22

To allow these balloons to be tracked,
NYU researchers fitted them with a chain
of kite-shaped radar reflectors consisting
of lightweight balsa wood frames
covered in metal foil. According to
Charles B. Moore, a General Mills
engineer attached to Project MOGUL,
the foil was fixed to the frames using
metallic tape purchased from a New York

City toy factory. This tape was stamped
with decorative patterns including hearts alien encounters in the American unpopulated areas. Once such balloon
and flowers intended to appeal to consciousness, though in both cases the launched in 1955 from Lowry Air Force
children, and it was these figures which mysterious objects were later revealed to Base in Colorado came down in a forest
UFOlogists later mistook for alien be Skyhook balloons. in New Brunswick, Canada, where it was
hieroglyphics. discovered by a woodsman in 1962. The
In the end, Project MOGUL was never highly-classified payload was quickly
But MOGUL No.4 would not be the last operationally deployed, but it laid the snapped up by the Canadian military,
weather balloon to be mistaken for an groundwork for future, more leaving an enduring local mystery that
alien spacecraft. On January 7, 1948, sophisticated Air Force balloon projects. was not solved until the U.S. Air Force
Godman Army Airfield at Fort Knox, In July 1950, General Mills conducted a files were declassified in 2016.

Kentucky received a report from a series of four Skyhook demonstration
highway patrolman of an unusual object flights carrying aerial observation As a result of extensive delays, Project
floating in the sky over the town of cameras, prompting the Air Force to GOPHER went through a series of
Madisonville. The object, described as launch an official balloon reconnaissance upgrades and re-designations, being
round, bright white, and with a red border program under the codename GOPHER. renamed Project GRANDSON, Project
around its base, was soon spotted several As with MOGUL, GOPHER was GRAYBACK, and finally Project
kilometres west, travelling at an conducted under the cover of an GENETRIX. Finally, in late 1955
estimated altitude of 3,000 metres and a unclassified atmospheric research project President Dwight Eisenhower gave the
speed of 800 kilometres per hour. A flight – in this case, Project MOBY DICK. The go-ahead for the Air Force to begin

of four F-51D Mustang fighters of the GOPHER gondola carried a 225 overflights of the Soviet Union in
Kentucky National Guard were ordered kilogram payload consisting of a narrow- January of the following year – provided
to intercept. One pilot, already low on angle camera that took pictures every 6.5 the balloons were limited to altitudes
fuel, immediately returned to base, but minutes and a wide-angle panoramic below 16,800 metres. This was because
the three others pursued the object to an camera to determine the general Lockheed’s U-2 spy plane was then
altitude of 6,900 metres. Not having geographic location of the balloon. The currently in development, and
oxygen masks, two more pilots soon balloons could remain at an altitude of Eisenhower did not wish to give the
abandoned the chase, but the third, 25- 21,000 metres for up to 16 days, Soviets any excuse to develop fighter
year-old Captain Thomas F. Mantell, whereupon the gondola would detach and aircraft and missiles capable of
continued to climb after the object until, deploy a parachute. On test flights the intercepting this higher-flying aircraft.
at an altitude of 7,600 feet, he blacked out payloads parachuted to the ground, but

from lack of oxygen. Mantell’s aircraft on operational flights they were snatched To provide a cover story for the
spiralled to the ground, killing him on midair by specially-equipped Fairchild GENETRIX launches, the Air Force
impact. Ten months later on October 1st, C-119 Flying Boxcar transport aircraft created an unclassified atmospheric
1948, Lieutenant George F. Gorman of before they could fall into enemy hands. research project called Operation White
the North Dakota National Guard Cloud. Between January 10 and February
reported intercepting a similar fast- While GOPHER was intended to become 6, 1956, 338 GENETRIX balloons were
moving glowing sphere while flying an operational by the end of 1951, the launched from sites in Scotland, Norway,
F-51D over Fargo. In both cases, the project suffered a number of delays due Germany, and Turkey, while 30 White
objects were later revealed to be Skyhook to issues with the camera payload and the Cloud balloons were launched from

research balloons. These encounters are midair recovery system. These problems Hawaii, Okinawa, and Alaska.
considered to be among the first “classic” lead to many test balloons drifting wildly
UFO sightings that cemented the idea of off course and being lost in remote, (Continued on Page 24)