Documents / Report
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.
“Nature”12 pages
# CONFIDENTIAL they appeared to move slowly to the north regrouping on at least two occasions into what appeared to be a V-Formation. At this time the writer apprised General Control of the phenomenon and thereafter attempted to give them bearings as seen from the Bell Hardstand. Shortly before Queen-1 was notified, the bodies had grouped into a V-Formation and commenced heading generally northward. The bearing heading from the Hardstand changed from nearly due east to a position lined up with Sierra Blanca in what seemed to be a few minutes time. This gave the impression of relatively high velocity. When last seen the bearing heading from the Bell Hardstand was slightly west of Sierra Blanca. Impressions gained by various Bell Personnel were as follows: a. Not unlike a handful of leaflets thrown from an airplane. b. Vibratory motion of individual bodies reported occasionally not unlike flapping of wings. c. Total time of observation, from time of first sighting, was approximately 15 minutes. It is of interest to note that the ground-to-air and air-to-ground VHF communications were generally very poor throughout the Bell mission which commenced at 1345 hours. The ground-to-ground VIIF communications were however very good. In addition, for the last ten minutes of the B-50 flight VIIF communication with the tower was extremely difficult as if another carrier was simultaneously in operation. When the writer contacted Queen-1 he was advised that they also were having communications difficulty. As additional information, winds aloft to 27,000 feet were generally west-northwest, estimated at 30 to 40 knots. The writer is morally certain that the phenomenon he witnessed could not have been balloons of Project Sky-Hook. In conclusion, the writer wishes to emphasize that the aerial phenomenon was different from anything he has ever seen up to and including flights of birds. ## BELL ADICRAFT CORPORATION /8/ DEXTER ROSEN Dexter Rosen Field Test Director DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. DOD DIR 5200.10
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.