Documents / Report
This Black Vault copy of Air Force records centers on the Project Twinkle Final Report, which Louis Elterman of the Geophysics Research Division wrote on 27 November 1951. Project Twinkle investigated green fireballs and other light phenomena in New Mexico using Askania cameras run by Land-Air at Vaughn and Holloman AFB. Elterman found the results essentially negative, with most sightings put down to aircraft, balloons, birds, clouds and meteors. He recommended no further spending. The file also includes the 1949 and 1950 correspondence that set up the project and 1952 memos about declassifying it.
UNCLAS~lf .. Summary of Recent_Aeria+.. Jhcnorn~na ;tenort13 fro]]} 17th. O,$I J?).s,trict 11 Nov . 19;0 - Reports of a. l are;e- sized balloon. It vras determined that this vias released by General d:i.lls . The balloon • subsequently was recovered . J,.2 Jan . 1951 - Report from ten k>s Alamos emnloyecs . Tear shaned object ,n_ th small tail; v er y bright appearance ; descended slo\-1ly; sky lirhted up fo · about 1 sec; " . t4kA.. ck.vt~--1 7 //JJ~ ~ - ~ · 16 ~·eb . 1951 - Aerial object reported i n the vicinity of holloman AFB . This turn ed out to be a General :d. lls balloon func tioning for Proj ect · s~1ook • 19 Feb. 1951 - A C- 54 pilot reoorted a gr een flar e or roc 1~e t observed in the vicinity of Rodeo, IJ . 1'. I-r,s notion was vertical and nassed the plane at 900C ft . Investigators believed this to be a meteo~ .,..,. 6 r:iar . 1951 - Renort fror:t four Los Alamos personne l of very brieht obj c t crossine, sky . Also observed by t \.ro Kirtland P.-FB pilots who reryorted this as a meteor ; time - 11~ : 30 ; repor ted by ur. La Paz to be a detonating f ire-baJl . .o fr~ents - recovered . - DOWNGR.ADP.D AT 3 YEAR !NT . DECLAtitilFJED AFTl~P 121 yffritLS: UNCLASSIFIE . DOD DIR 5200.10 . • .
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 34 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.