Documents / Report

Project Twinkle Final Report (scan)

NICAP · 29 pages · text by OCR

This declassified U.S. Air Force file contains the final report of Project Twinkle, dated 27 November 1951 and written by Louis Elterman of the Geophysics Research Division, together with related correspondence. The project was set up to investigate the green fireballs and other light phenomena around Holloman AFB and Vaughn, New Mexico, and it was run with Askania cameras. The report calls its findings essentially negative and recommends no further funding. In March 1952 the Directorate of Intelligence declined to declassify it.

  • p. 5 …Some photographic activity occurred on 27 April and 24 May, but simultaneous sightings by both cameras…
  • p. 7 …Instrumental observations - photographic, triangulation, and spectroscopic were considered essential. Dr. L. La Paz of the Department…
  • p. 9 …sky; that Fred Whipple in his work photographing meteors at Las Cruces, never detected a strange…
  • p. 10 …Land-Air has agreed to report and if possible photograph any abnormal sightings made during their…
  • p. 11 …It was arranged further that at such time when the study is completed all photographic and…
  • p. 13 …Whipple made a careful study of meteor photographs taken in New Mexico on 35 nights when…
  • p. 23 …capable of performing the required investigation (by photographic and spectroscopic means) provided that necessary funds, personnel…
# UNCLASSIFIED

Summary of Recent Aerial Phenomena Reports from 17th OSI District

11 Nov. 1950 - Reports of a large-sized balloon. It was determined that this was released by General Hills. The balloon subsequently was recovered.

13 Jan. 1951 - Report from ten Los Alamos employees. Tear shaped object with small tail; very bright appearance; descended slowly; sky lighted up for about 1 sec; observation time 05:00.

16 Feb. 1951 - Aerial object reported in the vicinity of Holloman AFB. This turned out to be a General Hills balloon functioning for Project "Skyhook".

19 Feb. 1951 - A C-54 pilot reported a green flare or rocket observed in the vicinity of Rodeo, N.M. Its motion was vertical and passed the plane at 9000 ft. Investigators believed this to be a meteor.

- Report from four Los Alamos personnel of very bright object crossing sky. Also observed by two Kirtland AFB pilots who reported this as a meteor; time - 14:30; report by Dr. La Paz to be a detonating fire-ball. No fragments recovered.

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 29 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.