psyche101, on 22 November 2012 - 07:46 AM, said:
Size and speed does not negate a meteor though. We get hit with one about the size of a car at least once a year, and they need to be about 25 meters across to survive re-entry and still make it to the surface, allowing it to upgrade it's status to meteorite. Anything smaller is likely to burn up before it hits the ground, and meteors move at about 30 times the speed of a bullet, so they are pretty darn quick.
All the specs fit in with a meteor moving at higher than normal speeds. That may not be the case, but according to the information, I do not think it rules out a meteor with what we know of them today.
Project Twinkle issued a final report in November 1951 which stated basically that there was nothing to report and no further funds should be spent on it. It is true that the number of sightings seemed to drop off after the project was started.
http://www.google.co...ZEzzbdHSRFFRbfA
Yet they did some some objects that they couldn't explain, and the Air Force was alerted to be ready to send up planes after them, although they were not authorized to open fire in this instance.
"Some photographic activity occurred on 27 April and 24 May, but simultaneous sightings by both cameras were not made, so that no information was gained. On 30 August 1950, during a Bell aircraft missile launching, aerial phenomena were observed over Holloman Air Force Base by several individuals; however, neither Land-Air nor Project personnel were notified and, therefore, no results were acquired. On 31 August 1950, the phenomena were again observed after a V-2 launching. Although much film was expended, proper triangulation was not effected, so that again no information was acquired.
On 11 September, arrangements were made by Holloman AFB for. Major. Gover, Commander 93rd Fighter Squadron at Kirtland AFB, to be on call so that aerial objects might be pursued. This would make possible more intimate visual observation and photography at close range. Major Gover was not authorized to shoot at the phenomena."
Some parts of the report were clearly not true, such as stating that Clyde Tombaugh had never seen a UFO:
"Mr. B. Guildenberg, who is an assistant to Major Doty and an active amateur astronomer, commented that he has been spending several hours at his telescope almost every night for the past few years and never once observed an unexplainable object; that on one occasion, an excited acquaintance was pacified when a "strange object" showed up as an eagle in the telescope; that Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto and now engaged in activities at White Sands, never observed an unexplainable aerial object despite his continuous and extensive observations of the sky; that Fred Whipple in his work photographing meteors at Las Cruces, never detected a strange aerial object with his Schmidt cameras; and that the A and M College at Las Cruces engages in astronomical observations but had never observed strange aerial phenomena."
This report also mentioned that film had been taken of the UFOs but there was no money in the contract to analyze it! This was not true either since Edward Ruppelt found out later that such an analysis had been done on at least one occasion. Bruce Maccabee speculates that this report was written to satisfy the Project Grudge group, who had been order to play down the whole subject of UFOs.
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