Purpose of the flight and payload description

This was a routine trajectory flight released from Holloman Air Force Base, on March 2 1950. It was followed by an Air Force tracking aircraft into west Georgia and headed out to sea. From there it apparently drifted south of Bermuda and then toward the northeast crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In March 4, Nils Bolstad, a railroad worker at Myrdal, Norway found the balloon on top of a seven-foot snowdrift. The balloon set a new record traveling 6.200 miles in about 50 hours at speeds from 120 to 160 miles an hour.

Details of the balloon flight

Balloon launched on: 3/2/1950
Launch site: Holloman Air Force Base, Alamogordo, New Mexico, US  
Balloon launched by: Holloman Air Force Base
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon 20 foot
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 3/4/1950
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 52 h
Landing site: Myrdal, Norway

The payload cutdown system failed.

External references

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