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.
I ..• • • • • .. . SUBJt~~T : Light Phenomena TO: Commanding Gene r al Air 1'ut er ieJ Gornmand ,.,ri ght-Patter son AFB Dayt on, Ohio c0 ., y .UNCLASSIFIED 14. ventember 1949 1 . Si nce t he est ablishment of the special 'lroject .at :~q ALC, ( Pr oject GRUD8-:: ) , t o i nvestigat e and analyze r epor ts on so- called 11 Fl~·ing saucers '1 and unidentified aer i al phenomen a , many r eports have been r e ceived t hr ough i nt e l lieence channel s from 1er sons \·1ho have observed what t hey cc nsider ed t o be unusual light phenomen a . Foremost in t his categor y have bee n t :.os e which a re des cribed as "greer. fireballs !I . 2. Analysi s by various specialists has indicated th".lt r.1any of the incidents involving light phenomena were undo ubtedly observations of nat ur al nhenomena . Partj.cular attention was eiven t o the "green fire~ ball" var iety by Dr . Joseph Kaplan , member of the USAF Scientific Advisory Boar d . Dr . t:aplan has concluded that the 11green fireballs !I a r e natural phenomena . 3. Cor respondence reJative to ~r . Kaplan ' s co~clusions on the )henomena ar.d corres ondence relative to a request from the 3ecnnd n nor ed Divisior., ~amp !ood , Texas , f or scientific investir,ation of sir:d.lar nhenomena, a r e .for warded for :'our infer--· tion . 4. The "~ir 'ater .:.el o1runand has uP1e ~ C"''"'~ rae several or.rani- za t ions in the o~ton a r ea. that a r e s~ecialists in observing techr.iques and t he i nt e r rn..~tation of celestial nhenomena. I t is desired that t hese o r ganizations be consulted r eg·1.r dine the 11 ~'~'reen fireball' ' phenomena . I f necessary , conside ration should be gi.ven to the establish- ment of an observational rogram designed to obtain add-itional infor1r..aticn necessary to an exnl anation of t t e nhenomenu. ~ 5. J, meet ing at Sandia in the • ew l'exico area is scheduled for > the middle of October to continue discussions of the lir:ht phenomena . t:1 ~ I t i s requested that representat ives from ldr Force lese rch L· boratories , g...,... tj B~se 1'1irectorate for Geophysical Research att end . ~ ~ ~ 6. This e valuat ion and Headquarter s should be a, pr ised of the progress of the t he result s of the Sandia meetine as soon as possible . 3 !nels: NCLASSIFIED 1-4t h Ind t o GSUSA w/bltr & Inds ( cy) dt d 9/1/1~9 2- Cy lt r ":. o Dr Kaplan e~ c/•.1 ~ d I dt d 8/9/ 49 3- Cy ltr f m Dr Kaolan dtd 7/31/49 w/i~cls • /s/ Jr. . ' 1~ c K . TU8 __....l Lt vol, US1\F Act e Chief, r.eoT)hvsical Directorate of R.i.· ~ffice , DCS/~' ~>~ 01~~N~ oM(?:j o~> ;....-" o"' ...,.. ?! ~-3 fl:.j t:r:1 >::o~~ en>. ~... ... . vCl.ences 3r
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.