Case file

Roswell, 1947: what was actually found

A rancher, a “flying disc”, a weather balloon, and a secret that wasn’t aliens.

How this site works. Every fact is in our own words with its source linked beside it. The pictures are our own drawings. We never say aliens have been found, because nobody has shown that they have; we show what was reported, then what the evidence says.

The Roswell incident was the crash and recovery of a US Army Air Forces high-altitude balloon near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, which became the centre of a conspiracy theory about aliens. Britannica, Roswell

The find

A rancher, W.W. “Mac” Brazel, found unusual debris on a ranch near Roswell. Britannica, Roswell

The debris included tinfoil, rubber strips and sticks. Britannica, Roswell

Brazel took the find to the sheriff, who contacted the local military airfield. Britannica, Roswell

The “flying disc”

The airfield put out a press release saying a “flying disc” had been recovered. Britannica, Roswell

On 8 July 1947 the Roswell Daily Record’s headline read “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region”. Britannica, Roswell

Almost at once, the military said the “saucer” was really a weather balloon carrying a radar target, a kind of box kite made of foil-covered paper on a balsa wood frame. Britannica, Roswell

Brazel himself told a newspaper he didn’t believe the debris came from a weather balloon. Britannica, Roswell

Timeline

• June–July 1947 A rancher, W.W. “Mac” Brazel, found unusual debris on a ranch near Roswell. Britannica, Roswell Brazel took the find to the sheriff, who contacted the local military airfield. Britannica, Roswell
• 8 July 1947 On 8 July 1947 the Roswell Daily Record’s headline read “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region”. Britannica, Roswell
• Days later Almost at once, the military said the “saucer” was really a weather balloon carrying a radar target, a kind of box kite made of foil-covered paper on a balsa wood frame. Britannica, Roswell
• 1980 The story faded until a 1980 book, The Roswell Incident, called the weather balloon explanation a cover story. Britannica, Roswell
• 1984 Documents that surfaced in 1984 about a secret group called Majestic 12 were later found to be fake. Britannica, Roswell
• 1992 Roswell now has an International UFO Museum and Research Center (opened 1992) and has held a UFO festival every year since 1996. Britannica, Roswell
• 1994 In 1994, after a member of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to look into it, the US Air Force searched its records on Roswell. US Air Force The 1994 Air Force report concluded that the debris came from a balloon-borne research project code-named Mogul. US Air Force
• 1995 The Government Accountability Office published its own report on its search for Roswell records in July 1995. GAO A 1995 “alien autopsy” film was later called a fraud by its own director. Britannica, Roswell
• 1997 A 1997 Air Force report said the “aliens” people described were probably human-shaped test dummies carried up by high-altitude research balloons. US Air Force

Project Mogul

The 1994 Air Force report concluded that the debris came from a balloon-borne research project code-named Mogul. US Air Force

Project Mogul was a top-secret attempt to detect Soviet nuclear bomb tests. Britannica, Roswell

Its balloons carried instruments high into the atmosphere to pick up the sound waves from an atomic bomb test. Smithsonian, Roswell

So the book was right about one thing: the weather balloon story was wrong. It was a spy balloon. Britannica, Roswell

Roswell today

Roswell now has an International UFO Museum and Research Center (opened 1992) and has held a UFO festival every year since 1996. Britannica, Roswell

Area 51 in Nevada, another favourite of alien stories, has only one confirmed use: testing aircraft. Britannica, Roswell

Next: Project Blue Book →