Area 51 is located 12 miles from Groom Lake which is between mountain ranges about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The base has many nicknames: Dreamland, The Ranch, The Box, Watertown Strip, and The Pig Farm. The only way the base can be described within the armed forces is as "a remote test facility"; even civilians working for military contractors are forbidden to mention the fact that it's in Nevada. Despite the secrecy, the base has been a magnet for hundreds of curious people who want to know the truth. But, all the people share two key attitudes: military aircraft-particularly secret ones-are fascinating; and more knowledge about what tax money buys. Most of that money went to building high tech planes there. In the late 1950's was when the Lockheed U-2 spy plane was being built and tested at Area 51. Bob Gilliland was the former Lockheed test pilot who flew the first prototype of the SR-71 Blackbird in 1962. The test flight was at Area 51. The Blackbird was also a secret spy plane, like the U-2. Both were built and tested at Area 51. At the time, the Blackbird was important to the U.S. It flew at very high altitudes; on the edge of the earth's atmosphere. They flew so high pilots had to wear spacesuits. The Blackbird was one of the best spy planes because it couldn't be intercepted due to the altitudes. Yet, it still showed great pictures behind enemy lines. Then, in 1986, the F-117A Nighthawk was being tested, also known as the Stealth Fighter. The Stealth was unlike any plane that ever existed. Instead of the basic design, the Stealth was a delta-shaped plane. No wings. It was also built and tested at Area 51. The first production aircraft on it's first flight crashed at Area 51. It took a long time to make it so the plane could fly right. But, the Stealth was very unique. Not only was it's shape strange, but it was almost invisible to radar. There is not one right angle on the Stealth, so radar can't hit the plane and bounce straight back. If the signal bounces straight back, it would be easy to detect. With no right angles, the signal hits the plane and bounces off in a different direction. Also, the plane has an outer shell of material that partially absorbs the signal. These two thngs makes the Stealth's radar cross section very small and almost invisable. A very controversial theory is of another plane being built that can reach speeds of Mach 7. The plane is called "Aurora". Here is how fast that is: the Concorde flies from New York to London in 3 hours at Mach 2. The Aurora could fly from New York to London in about 30 minutes. The Aurora is possible of reaching speeds that fast because it uses both jet and pulse-detonation-wave engines.
Area 51 isn't just for building and testing secret planes. People go to look at test aircraft fly over the base and see many types of aircraft flying. F-15s, F-16s, B-52s and other planes fly low-level training missions through the empty valleys. Russian Sukhoi Su-22 and MiG-23 fighters also fly over the base. Workers at Area 51 also have to fly to the base to get there. Weekdays at 4:45 AM, a 737 airliner lands at Area 51 and drops off personnel. These aircraft move at high rates of speed and need a large runway to accommodate them. So, the government added on to the length of the runway at Area 51. It was started (and completed) sometime between 1968 and 1988. The main runway is now 18,000 feet long, making it the longest runway in the world.
As mentioned earlier, Area 51 lies between two mountain ranges. So, people started going to one of those mountain ranges to see Area 51. That mountain range had four mountains in it: Crisis Corner, Freedom Ridge, White Sides, and Supplemental Hills. The two mountains that overlook the base are Freedom Ridge and White Sides. People watched the base for a long time from the tops of these mountains. But, on April 10, 1995, Freedom Ridge and White Sides were officially closed to public access. Now to get any kind of view of Area 51, you must go to Tikaboo Peak, which is 20 miles from Area 51. This shows that the government doesn't want anyone looking at the base. Before it was closed to the public, anyone who went to look at the base was constantly watched. An interceptor team who went to Freedom Ridge in early 1994 camped at the peak for several days. They were always being watched by guards who work for the government. The "Use of deadly force is authorized" so you can't go anywhere near the base.
In 1989, a man named Bob Lazar appeared in a broadcast on KLAS-TV in Nevada, saying he was a physicist hired by the government to reverse-engineer the propulsion systems of saucer-shaped alien spacecraft. The saucers, he maintained, were kept at a secret complex called S-4 at Papoose Lake, a dry lake bed located a few miles south of Groom Lake. Lazar's claims are proved impossible to confirm, but that was when people became interested in Area 51 and Area S-4.
Groom Lake's roles as a secret air base began in 1954, when the CIA gave Lockheed a contract to develop a spy plane that could fly higher than any aircraft yet built. The Soviet Union was to be the U-2's target. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was dispatched to find a location where tests of the aircraft could be kept hidden. Groom Lake seemed perfect. Flight testing of the Air Force's SR-71 and the A-12 was conducted there in 1962. Covertly obtained Soviet fighters were also hidden and flight-tested there. And about 14 years ago the F-117A first flew at Groom Lake.
Recent years have brought more growth to the base. Construction of a parallel runway estimated to be about 15,000 feet long was begun around 1989 to permit continued flight testing when winter flooding makes the main runway's northern half unusable. A new tank farm was built that stores cryogenic liquid methane or hydrogen fuels used by hypersonic aircraft. More hangars were built for mating and de-mating aircraft. The base is getting larger every year.
This page was last updated at 10:23 PM Eastern Time. 1/4/00
See A picture of hangars and planes at Area 51.
See A picture of Area 51. This is a picture of Area 51 from Tikaboo Peak.
Below is the Area 51 logo
