Mogul Balloon with Radar Targets, July 22, 1948
This photo was published in the 1995 USAF Roswell report. It is presented here, along with an inset enlargement of the middle radar target to illustrate 2 points brought up in other discussions:
1. When viewed directly from the bottom, such as the middle and far radar targets, the shape of the targets might be described as "hexagonal." Another viewpoint that might look "hexagonal" would be directly from the top. But this would be true only if the targets were both assembled and completely intact and viewed from only these 2 unique directions. The targets are not remotely "hexagonal" viewed from any other angles or when folded down.
But General Ramey had the shape of the wreckage on his office floor described as "hexagonal" to Reuters wire service and the FBI while claiming not to definitely know what it was, though maybe it was a radar target. It would be literally impossible for Ramey to deduce a "hexagonal" shape from the nonassembled, torn up, flattened, and scattered wreckage of a radar target that he displayed in his office. It would be like deducing the shape of a sheet of paper after tearing it up and scattering the pieces on the ground.
Only somebody intimately familiar with these radar targets would ever use a unusual word like "hexagonal" to describe them, yet Ramey was claiming that both he and his men were unsure or completely ignorant as to his object's true identity.
Use of the word "hexagonal" therefore proves that the radar target story was planned in advance and a cover story. There is no conceivable reason for Gen. Ramey to use such an unusual adjective to describe the shape of a wrecked object unless he had been given such a description ahead of time by persons knowing all about these devices.
2. The inset shows a white paper edge strip (arrow) contrasted against a main foil panel. These were formed by folding over the white paper backing to the foil along the edge for reinforcement of the edge or to act as a sheath for some of the edge framework sticks. There have been the claims of some that these white edge strips did not exist on these targets. Therefore the visible white strips in the photos taken in Ramey's office allegedly prove this wasn't one of these radar targets. These arguments are total rubbish. For other photos of a radar target clearly showing these white edge strips, see my page on radar target construction.
