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.
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IJNCLASSlFlED
It should be noted that Dr . Jhipnle made a cnre~ study of
meteor photogranhs tru{en in I;ew hexico on 35 nirhts when observations
Here reported . None of the nhotographs revealed the. pr0sence of un-
usual sky phenomena .
Finally, the overall picture obtained from the year of vigilance
and inquiry does not uor mit a conclusive opinion concerning the aerial
ohenomena of interest. The comparatively hif;h incidence of tl1e ~heno -
mena since 1948 does not necessar ily indicate that the objects are
man- made . It is conceivable that the earth may be passing through a
ree;ion in space of high r.1eteoric pooulation . Also, the sun- spot
lilrodma. in 1948 ocrhaos in some vray may be a contributing factor .
6. Reconunenda tions
Since the findings to d~te cannot 'be considered conclusive, it
appears that the followine recozmnendations would be oertinent :
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l>OWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVAlS·
DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. I •
DOD DIR 5200.10
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UNCLASSIFIED
• 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.