Editing Project Mogul (section)

== Project history ==
The project was carried out from 1947 until early 1949. It was a classified portion of an unclassified project by [[New York University]] (NYU) atmospheric researchers.{{R|"Frazier"}} The project was moderately successful, but was very expensive and was superseded by a network of [[seismic]] detectors and air sampling for fallout, which were cheaper, more reliable, and easier to deploy and operate.<ref name="McAndrew">{{cite web |last1=McAndrew, 1st Lt, USAFR |first1=James |title=Report on Project Mogul  Synopsis of Balloon Research Findings |url=https://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/Roswell/USMogulReport.html |website=muller.lbl.gov |publisher=University of California Berkeley, California |access-date=30 April 2025}}</ref><ref name="Webster">{{cite web |last1=Webster |first1=Donovan |title=In 1947, A High-Altitude Balloon Crash Landed in Roswell. The Aliens Never Left  |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/in-1947-high-altitude-balloon-crash-landed-roswell-aliens-never-left-180963917/ |date=July 5, 2017 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=30 April 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Mogul height Weaver 1995 USAF.png|thumb|alt=A chart compares the height of a Mogul Balloon Train at 657 feet, the Eiffel Tower at 1056 feet, the Washington Monument at 555 feet, and the Statue of Liberty at 305 feet.|Relative height of a Project Mogul balloon train]]

Project Mogul was conceived by [[Maurice Ewing]] who had earlier researched the [[deep sound channel]] in the oceans and theorized that a similar sound channel existed in the [[Earth's atmosphere|upper atmosphere]]: a certain height where the air pressure and temperature result in minimal speed of sound, so that sound waves would propagate and stay in that channel due to [[refraction]]. The project involved arrays of balloons carrying disc microphones and radio transmitters to relay the signals to the ground. It was supervised by James Peoples, who was assisted by [[Albert P. Crary]].<ref name="McAndrew" />

One of the requirements of the balloons was that they maintain a relatively [[aerostat|constant altitude]] over a prolonged period of time.  Thus instrumentation had to be developed to maintain such constant altitudes, such as pressure sensors controlling the release of [[buoyancy compensator (aviation)|ballast]].<ref name="McAndrew" />

The early Mogul balloons consisted of large clusters of rubber [[Weather balloon|meteorological balloons]], however, these were quickly replaced by enormous balloons made of [[polyethylene]] plastic. These were more durable, leaked less [[helium]], 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.<ref name="McAndrew" />