Skyhook balloon
Encyclopedia
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
s developed by Otto C. Winzen
Otto C. Winzen
Otto C. Winzen was a German - American aeronautics engineer who made significant advances in the materials and construction of balloons after World War II....
and General Mills, Inc., and used by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
Office of Naval Research
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
in the late 1940s and in the 1950s for atmospheric
Earth's atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
research, especially for constant-level meteorological observations at very high altitudes. Instruments like the Cherenkov detector
Cherenkov detector
A Cherenkov detector is a particle detector using the mass-dependent threshold energy of Cherenkov radiation. This allows a discrimination between a lighter particle and a heavier particle ....
were first used on skyhook balloons.
Project Skyhook
In the late 1940s, Project Skyhook balloons provided a stable vehicle for long duration observations at altitudes in excess of 100,000 feet. Balloons, long used for collecting meteorological data, now offered the opportunity of collecting highly specialized information and photographs. The first Skyhook balloon was launched on September 25, 1947. The balloon was developed by General Mills. It carried a 63-pound payload of nuclear emulsionNuclear emulsion
In a Particle and Nuclear physics, a nuclear emulsion plate is a photographic plate with a particularly thick emulsion layer and with a very uniform grain size. Like bubble chambers, cloud chambers, and wire chambers nuclear emulsion plates record the tracks of charged particles passing through...
to over 100,000 feet. In the succeeding 10 years, over 1500 Skyhook flights were made for investigations supported by the ONR and for European scientists. These flights were made from locations in the United States, Canada, and naval vessels in the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, and Arctic waters. Both Winzen Research and General Mills participated in these launchings, and in later years, the Atomic Energy Commission joined ONR in support of Project Skyhook.
Among significant flights, in 1948 Project Skyhook launched the first successful three balloon cluster. In 1949, the first shipboard Skyhook launch took place, followed by nearly 300 shipboard launchings over the next 10 years. The first manned plastic balloon flight under ONR contract took place in 1949. Project Rockoon
Rockoon
A rockoon is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and automatically ignited...
, in 1952, featured a Skyhook balloon that released small Deacon rockets
Deacon (rocket)
Deacon is the designation of an American sounding rocket. The Deacon was launched 90 times from 1947 to 1957 from Wallops Island. The Deacon has a maximum flight height of 20 kilometers and a pay load ability of 17 kilograms...
at about 70,000 feet above arctic waters. On September 7, 1956, the University of Minnesota launched a giant Mylar balloon (developed by the G. T. Schejeldahl Corporation
Gilmore Schjeldahl
Gilmore Tilmen Schjeldahl was an American businessman and inventor in plastics, adhesives, and circuitry. He was awarded 16 US patents and may be best known for inventing the plastic-lined airsickness bag....
of Northfield, MN) to set an unofficial balloon altitude record of 145,000 feet for unmanned balloons. In 1957 the US Navy began an operational aerology system known as Transosonde (trans-ocean sounding), consisting of almost daily balloon flights across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.
Project Stratoscope
On August 19, 1957, an unmanned Skyhook balloon lifted the first Project StratoscopeStratoscope
The Stratoscopes were two balloon-borne astronomical telescopes which flew from the 1950s to the 1970s and observed in the optical and infrared regions of the spectrum. Both were controlled remotely from the ground....
telescope. Project Stratoscope was a program developed to research the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. Instruments included a 12-inch (30-centimeter) telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
with a special light-sensitive pointing system and a closed circuit television camera that was guided by the scientists on the ground. This was the first balloon-borne telescope. The telescope took more than 400 photographs of sunspots. These were the sharpest photographs taken of the Sun up to that time. The photographs increased scientists' understanding of the motions observed in the strong magnetic fields of the sunspots.
Project Churchy
In 1948 Skyhook balloons were used to show that in addition to protonProton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
s and electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
s, cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s also include high energy atomic nuclei that are stripped of their electrons. Thirteen stratospheric plastic Skyhook balloons were launched in September 1953 as part of Project Churchy, an Office of Naval Research funded cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
expedition at the geomagnetic equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
. Project Churchy was conducted at the Galápagos because high-energy cosmic-ray particles can only be collected at the geomagnetic equator without accompanying low-energy particles found at higher latitudes. Balloons carrying scientific instruments rose to between 90000 feet (27,432 m) and 105000 feet (32,004 m) and encountered temperatures as low as -80°C (-112°F). Aircraft from Patrol Squadron (VP) 45 ‘Pelicans’
Commander, Naval Air Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet
Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet is the aviation Type Commander for the United States Atlantic Fleet naval aviation units...
took off an hour after the launch of each balloon and visually tracked the balloon until it released its cargo and deflated. The instruments were observed until splashdown, and marked for destroyers to retrieve.
UFO phenomena
The Skyhook balloon may be at the origin of UFO observations. The most famous case possibly involving a Skyhook mis-sighting was the Mantell UFO Incident.The film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is an American black and white science fiction film, directed by Fred F. Sears and released by Columbia Pictures. The film is also known as Invasion of the Flying Saucers. It was ostensibly suggested by the non-fiction work Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Donald...
had the American satellite launching progam called "Project Skyhook".
See also
- Gas balloonGas balloonA gas balloon is any balloon that stays aloft due to being filled with a gas less dense than air or lighter than air . A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small rubber party balloons...
- Mantell UFO Incident
- Otto C. WinzenOtto C. WinzenOtto C. Winzen was a German - American aeronautics engineer who made significant advances in the materials and construction of balloons after World War II....
- Project Genetrix
- Project Moby Dick
- Project MogulProject MogulProject Mogul was a top secret project by the US Army Air Forces involving microphones flown on high altitude balloons, whose primary purpose was long-distance detection of sound waves generated by Soviet atomic bomb tests. The project was carried out from 1947 until early 1949...
- Project Strato-Lab
- Winzen ResearchWinzen ResearchWinzen Research Inc created balloons in the 1950s and 1960s that were used by the United States Navy in its Projects Helios, Skyhook, and Strato-Lab. Balloons were also sold to the United States Air Force for use in Project Manhigh and for a secret reconnaissance mission, called Moby Dick, to...
External links
- Skeptical Inquiry article - The cold war's classified Skyhook program, a participant's revelations
- StratoCat - Historical recopilation project on the use of stratospheric balloons in the scientific research, the military field and the aerospace activity
- Office of Naval Research