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a» Plastic ‘Moby Dicks’ Flying Since 1950 Mayen TW se) ae Whale-Like Air Force Balloons Rise 20 Miles, Solve Flying Saucer Riddle, Wind Secrets By the Associated Press | The magazine Aviation Week published a new report yester- day on What the Air Force has found out about the upper at- {mosphere with its “Moby Dick” ballons—whale-like bags which have often been mistaken for flying saucers. Since the big helium-filled ‘balloons made their appear-' ance three years ago, the maga- zine said, more than 90 percent of the “saucer” sightings have ‘coincided with their logged as- cents and charted: courses. ‘The shiny surface of the plas- tic balloons is an excellent re- \flector of light. sun has set and darkness has Long after the; Joons sometimes seem to be racing at tremendous velocities, whereas they actually are moy- ing at 60 miles an hour or less. One evening after sunset many units of the Strategic Air Command in. Texas were kept busy trying to catch and shoot down a flying object that was actually a Moby Dick drift- ing along at about 90,000 feet in a glow of dust-refracted sun- light. B-36 bomber crews, accus- tomed to flying high altitudes, gave up the chase when they were left behind at 45,000 feet, and jet fighters stalled trying to pursue the object above their altitude ceiling. Another mysterious object, covered the earth, they shine/later identified positively as a \brillantly with the light re- ‘flected from the sun at alti-| tudes of from 90,000 to 100,-| research balloon, floated over’ San Francisco last spring during a parade welcoming Gen. James 000 feet, almost 20 miles up in/A. Van Fleet home from Korea. the sky. Vapor dust or other foreign particles in the atmosphere make the light appear white, red, purple, or green. Because of the difficulty of judging speed at high altitudes, the bal- aa i It shone as a brilliant white sphere as jet fighters vainly) tried to reach it. On another day, Dayton, Ohio, was filled with “saucer” reports as anoth- er balloon floated over the city. The balloon flights have con- NOT FPCORDED — 191 s — firmed the fact that air current travel in opposite directions at different altitude layers. The prevailing wind moves from} West to East across the United States at about 50,000 feet. About 10,000 feet higher, how-) ever, the flow is sometimes re- versed. Balloons have also carried various kinds. of animal life, ranging from fruit flies to mic and monkeys, up to 80,000 feet. ‘The experimental animals hay: survived such altitudes for 2 hours and have been recovered to provide living data for. scien-| tifie research. _ Th@sYoby DicK™balloons are elease most daily at Tilla- |mook, Ore.; Vernalis, Calif., ant Edwards Air Force Base in Cali’ used to take advantage of lat and Sedalia, Mo. they destroy themselves auto- 33,000 feet. Recording machines} and instruments are parachuted to earth, fornia, Two more sites will bo} summer winds—the Moody Airt, Force hase near Valdosta, Ga., The big bags are made so that) matically when they descend to}, Tolson % La Aichi e Belntont C042" * Clegg Glavin Harbo- Rosen Tracy —____ Laughlin Noh Winterrowd Tele. Rm. Holloman Gandy. UME. yj / ( Times-Herald Wash. Post Er IZ 1953 Wash. News Wash. Star r N.Y. Herald Tribune