Wikipedia
This article is about the U.S. government facility; for other uses see Area 51 (disambiguation).'' . Additional construction has taken place since then.]] Area 51 (also known as Watertown, Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, The Box, Groom Lake, and The Directorate for Development Plans Area) is a remote tract of land in southern Nevada, owned by the federal government of the United States, containing an air field apparently used for the secret development and testing of new military aircraft. It is famed as the subject of many UFO conspiracy theory UFO conspiracy theories.
Geography - Area 51 is a section of land of approximately 60 square milesq. mi. / 155 square kilometrekm² in Lincoln County, NevadaLincoln County, Nevada, United StatesUSA. It is part of the vast (4687 sq. mi. / 12139 km²) Nellis Air Force Range (NAFR). The area consists largely of the wide Emigrant Valley, framed by the Groom and Papoose mountain ranges (to the North and South respectively) and the Jumbled Hills to the East. Between the two ranges lies Groom Dry Lake (coor dms371605N1154758W ), a dry endorheicalkali lake bed roughly three miles (5 km) in diameter. A large air base exists on the southwest corner of the lake (coor dm3714N11549W ) with two concrete runways, one of which extends onto the lake bed, and four unprepared runways on the lake bed itself. High-resolution satellite images have shed some light on the facility's complex runway layouts. Area 51 has two operating runways, the main is 14L/32R, a concrete runway constructed in the 1990s, measuring 11,980 x 200 ft (3651 x 61 m) with a 1000 x 100 ft (304 x 30 m) overrun at each end and the secondary, shorter runway is 12/30 which also doubles as a taxiway, measuring 5,420ft x 150ft (1,652m x 45m). The much more enigmatic, older runway is exactly six miles (9656 m) long. It is composed of 12,500 ft of concrete, 11,080 ft of asphalt, and 5560 ft and 2540 ft of now dismantled asphalt on the north and south ends, respectively. At least three sets of old runway markings are found, suggesting that the full six-mile length was probably never used in its entirety. Currently only a 6,600 ft (2011 m) stretch of the concrete section is marked for use, forming runway 14R/32L. The dirt lakebed runways, comprising two twin airstrips, measure up to 11,270 ft (3435 m) in length and 100 to 170 ft (30 to 52 m) in width.Area 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flats region of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), the location of many of the U.S. United States Department of EnergyDepartment of Energy's nuclear weapons tests. The Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility is approximately 40 miles (64km) southwest of Groom Lake.The designation "Area 51" is somewhat contentious, appearing on older maps of the NTS but not newer ones, but the same naming scheme is used for other parts of the Nevada Test Site.The area is connected to the internal NTS road network, with paved roads leading both to Mercury to the northwest and west to Yucca Flats. Leading northeast from the lake, Groom Lake Road (a wide, well-conditioned dirt road) runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. Groom Lake Road was formerly the track leading to mines in the Groom basin, but has been improved since their closure. Its winding course takes it past a security checkpoint, but the restricted area around the base extends further east than this (unauthorized visitors who travel west on Groom Lake Road are usually observed first by guards located on the hills surrounding the pass, still several miles from the checkpoint). After leaving the restricted area (marked by numerous warning signs stating that "photography is prohibited" and that "use of deadly force is authorized") Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches, before joining with Nevada State Route 375, the "Extraterrestrial Highway", south of Rachel, NevadaRachel.
Operations at Groom Lake - Groom Lake is not a conventional airbase, and frontline units are not normally deployed there. It appears, rather, to be used during the development, test and training phases for new aircraft. Once those aircraft have been accepted by the USAF, operation of that aircraft is generally shifted to a normal air force base. Groom is reported, however, to be the permanent home for a small number of aircraft of Soviet UnionSoviet design (obtained by various means). These are reportedly analyzed and used for training purposes. Soviet spy satellites obtained photographs of the Groom Lake area during the height of the Cold War, but these support only modest conclusions about the base. They depict a nondescript base, airstrip, hangars, and so forth, but nothing that supports some of the wilder claims about underground facilities. Later commercial satellite images show that the base has grown, but remains superficially unexceptional.
Senior Trend / U-2 program - Groom Lake was used for bombing and artillery practice during World War II, but was then abandoned until 1955, when it was selected by Lockheed's skunkworks team as the ideal location to test the forthcoming Lockheed U-2U-2 spy plane. The lakebed made for an ideal strip to operate the troublesome test aircraft from, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter protected the secret plane from curious eyes.Lockheed constructed a makeshift base at Groom, little more than a few shelters and workshops and a small constellation of trailer homes in which to billet its small team. The first U-2 flew at Groom in August 1955, and U-2s under the control of the CIA began overflights of Soviet UnionSoviet territory by mid-1956.During this period, the NTS continued to perform a series of atmospheric nuclear explosions. U-2 operations throughout 1957 were frequently disrupted by the Operation PlumbbobPlumbbob series of atomic tests, which exploded over two dozen devices at the NTS. The Plumbbob-Hood explosion on July 5 scattered Nuclear falloutfallout across Groom and forced its (temporary) evacuation.As the U-2's primary mission was to overfly the Soviet Union, it operated largely from airbases near the Soviet border, including Incirlik Air BaseIncirlik in Turkey and Peshawar in Pakistan.
Blackbird (OXCART / A-10 / A-11 / A-12 / SR-71) program - Even before U-2 development was complete, Lockheed began work on its successor, the CIA's ''OXCART'' project, a Mach numberMach-3 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft later known as the SR-71 Blackbird. The Blackbird's flight characteristics and maintenance requirements forced a massive expansion of facilities and runways at Groom Lake. By the time the first A-12 Blackbird prototype flew at Groom in 1962, the main runway had been lengthened to 8500 ft (2600 m), and the base boasted a complement of over 1000 personnel. It had fueling tanks, a control tower, and a baseball diamond. Security was also greatly enhanced, the small civilian mine in the Groom basin was closed, and the area surrounding the valley was made an exclusive military preserve (where interlopers were subject to "lethal force"). Groom saw the first flight of all major Blackbird variants: A-10, A-11, A-12, RS-71 (renamed SR-71 by USAF Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay and not by a presidential error as popularly believed), the abortive YF-12A strike-fighter variant, and the disastrous D-21 Blackbird-based drone project.
Have Blue / F-117 program - The first Have Blue prototype stealth fighter (a smaller cousin of the F-117 Nighthawk) first flew at Groom in late 1977. Testing of a series of ultra-secret prototypes continued there until mid-1981, when testing transitioned to the initial production of F-117 stealth fighters. In addition to flight testing, Groom performed radar profiling, F-117 weapons testing, and was the location for training of the first group of frontline USAF F-117 pilots. Subsequently active-service F-117 operations (still highly classified) moved to the nearby Tonopah Test Range and finally to Holloman Air Force Base.
Later operations - imagery]]Since the F-117 became operational in 1983, operations at Groom Lake have continued unabated. The base and its associated runway system have been expanded, and the daily flights bringing civilian commuters from Las Vegas continue. Some commentators, after examining recent satellite photos of the base, estimate it to have a live-in complement of over 1000 people, with a similar number commuting from Las Vegas. In 1995 the federal government expanded the exclusionary area around the base to include nearby mountains that had hitherto afforded the only decent overlook of the base. Subsequently, limited views of the area are available only from the summits of several distant mountains, particularly Tikaboo Peak (coor dms372040N1152132W ), around 26 miles (42 km) to the east.Rumored aircraft that have supposedly been tested at Groom include the various classified Unmanned aerial vehicleUAVs, a small stealthy VTOL troop-transport aircraft, a stealthy cruise missile, and the hypothetical Aurora aircraftAurora hypersonic spy plane.
Area 51 commuters - Defense contractor EG&G maintains a private terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas. A number of unmarked aircraft operate daily shuttle services from McCarran to sites operated by EG&G in the extensive federally controlled lands in southern Nevada. These aircraft reportedly use JANET radio call signs (e.g., "JANET 6"), said to be an acronym for "Joint Air Network for Employee Transportation" or (perhaps as a joke) "Just Another Non-Existent Terminal". EG&G advertises in the Las Vegas press for experienced airline pilots, saying applicants must be eligible for government security clearance and that successful applicants can expect to always overnight at Las Vegas. These aircraft, painted white with red trim (the livery of now defunct Western Airlines), include Boeing 737s and several smaller executive jets. Their tail numbers are registered to several unexceptional civil aircraft leasing corporations. They are reported to shuttle to Groom, Tonopah Test Range, to other locations in the NAFR and NTS, and reportedly to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. Observers counting departures and cars in the private EG&G parking lot at McCarran estimate several thousand people commute on JANET each day. A bus runs a commuter service along Groom Lake Road, catering to a small number of employees living in several small desert communities beyond the NTS boundary (although it is not clear whether these workers are employed at Groom or at other facilities in the NTS). The bus drives down Groom Lake Road and stops at Crystal Springs, NevadaCrystal Springs, Ash Springs, NevadaAsh Springs, and Alamo, NevadaAlamo.
The Government's position on Area 51 - watch from the ridgeline.]] The U.S. Government does not explicitly acknowledge the existence of the Groom Lake facility, nor does it deny it. Unlike much of the Nellis range, the area surrounding the lake is permanently off-limits both to civilian and normal military air traffic. The area is protected by radar stations, and uninvited guests are met by helicopters and armed guards. Should they accidentally stray into the exclusionary "box" surrounding Groom's airspace, even military pilots training in the NAFR are reportedly grilled extensively by military intelligence agents.Perimeter security is provided by uniformed private security guards working for EG&G, who patrol in desert camouflage Jeep Cherokee and High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled VehicleHum-Vee vehicles. Although the guards are armed with M16 (rifle)M16s, no violent encounters with Area 51 observers have been reported; instead the "camo dudes" generally follow visitors near the perimeter and radio for the Lincoln County sheriff. Modest fines (of around $600) seem to be the norm, although some visitors and journalists report receiving follow-up visits from FBI agents. Some observers have been detained on public land for pointing camera equipment at the base. Surveillance is also conducted using buried motion sensors and by HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters.The base does not appear on public U.S. government maps; the USGS topological map for the area only shows the long-disused Groom Mine, and the civil aviation chart for Nevada shows a large restricted area, but defines it as part of the Nellis restricted airspace. Similarly the National Atlas page showing nationalatlas.gov - federal lands in Nevada does not distinguish between the Groom block and other parts of the Nellis range. Although officially declassified, the original film taken by U.S. Corona (satellite)Corona Reconnaissance satellitespy satellite in the 1960s has been altered prior to declassification; in answer to freedom of information queries, the government responds that these exposures (which map to Groom and the entire NAFR) appear to have been destroyed (fas.org - Corona image). Terra (satellite)Terra satellite images (which were publicly available) were removed from webservers (including Microsoft's "Terraserver") in 2004 (? terraserver.microsoft.com - Terraserver image), and from the monochrome 1 m resolution USGS datadump made publicly available. NASA Landsat 7 images are still available (these are used in the NASA World Wind program and are displayed by Google Maps). Non-U.S. images, including high-resolution photographs from Russian satellites and the commercial IKONOS system, are also easily available (and abound on the Internet). Nevada's state government, recognizing the folklore surrounding the base might afford the otherwise neglected area some tourism potential, officially renamed the section of Nevada State Route 375 near Rachel "The Extraterrestrial Highway", and posted fancifully illustrated signs along its length.Although federal property within the base is exempt from state and local taxes, facilities owned by private contractors are not. One researcher has reported that the base only declares a taxable value of $2 million to the Lincoln County tax assessor, who is unable to enter the area to perform an assessment. Some Lincoln County residents have complained that the base is an unfair burden on the county, providing few local jobs (as most employees appear to live in or near Las Vegas) and imposing an iniquitous burden of land sequestration and law enforcement costs.
Environmental lawsuit - In 1994 five unnamed civilian contractors and the widows of contractors Walter Kasza and Robert Frost sued the USAF and the Environmental Protection Agency. Their suit, in which they were represented by The George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, alleged they had been present when large quantities of unknown chemicals had been burned in open pits and trenches at Groom. biopsyBiopsies taken from the complainants were analyzed by Rutgers University biochemistrybiochemists, who found high levels of dioxin, dibenzofuran, and trichloroethylene in their body fat. The complainants alleged they had sustained skin, liver, and respiratory injuries due to their work at Groom, and that this had contributed to the deaths of Frost and Kasza. The suit sought compensation for the injuries they had sustained, claiming the USAF had illegally handled toxic materials, and that the EPA had failed in its duty to enforce the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (which governs handling of dangerous materials). They also sought detailed information about the chemicals to which they alleged they had been exposed, hoping this would help the medical treatment of those still living.The government petitioned trial judge, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro (sitting in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas), to disallow disclosure of classified documents or examination of witnesses on secret matters, alleging this would expose classified information and threaten national security. When Judge Pro rejected the government's argument, Bill ClintonPresident Bill Clinton issued a Presidential Determination, exempting what it called "the Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada" from environmental disclosure laws. Consequently Pro dismissed the suit due to lack of evidence. Turley appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitNinth Circuit court of appeal on the grounds that the government was abusing its powers to classify material. United States Secretary of the Air ForceSecretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall filed a brief which said that disclosures of the materials present in the air and water near Groom "can reveal military operational capabilities or the nature and scope of classified operations." The Ninth Circuit rejected Turley's appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it, putting paid to the complainants' case. The President of the United StatesPresident continues to annually issue a determination continuing the Groom exception (frwebgate.access.gpo.gov - 2000 determination, whitehouse.gov - 2002 determination, whitehouse.gov - 2003 determination). This (albeit tacitly) constitutes the only formal recognition the U.S. Government has ever given that Groom Lake is more than simply another part of the Nellis complex.
UFO and conspiracy theories concerning Area 51 - Its secretive nature and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led Area 51 to become a centerpiece of modern Unidentified flying objectUFO and conspiracy theory folklore. Some of the unconventional activities claimed to be underway at Area 51 include:the storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed Extraterrestrial lifealien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell UFO incidentRoswell), the study of their occupants (living and dead), and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology. meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.the development of exotic energy weapons (for Strategic Defense InitiativeSDI applications or otherwise) or means of weather control.activities related to a supposed shadowy world government.Many of theories concern underground facilities at Groom or at nearby Papoose Lake, and include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system, a disappearing airstrip (nicknamed the "Cheshire Airstrip", after Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat) which briefly appears when water is sprayed onto its camouflaged asphalt (serve.com), and engineering based on alien technology. In 1989 Bob Lazar claimed that he had worked at a facility at Papoose Lake (which he called S-4) on such a U.S. Government flying saucer.Others, however, claim that the most secret work previously done at Groom was quietly moved to Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in the mid 1990s, and that the continued secrecy around Groom is largely an attempt at misdirection.
Area 51 in popular culture - The base is featured in episodes of the television series ''The Simpsons'', ''Futurama (TV series)Futurama'', ''Family Guy'', ''American Dad'', ''The X-Files'', ''Taken'', ''Seven Days'', ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', ''Kim Possible'', ''Megas XLR'' (as Area 50), and ''Stargate SG-1'', the movies ''Groom Lake (movie)Groom Lake,'' ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' (as Area 52) and ''Independence Day (movie)Independence Day'', and in the computer and video games ''Area 51 (video game)Area 51'', ''Deus Ex'', ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Tomb RaiderTomb Raider III'', ''Perfect Dark'', ''Twisted Metal 3'', ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' (called Area 69), ''Destroy All Humans!'' (called Area 42), ''SimCity 4'' (as Area 5.1). ''Half-Life (computer game)Half-Life'', which is set mostly in and around the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility, is generally considered to be modeled after Area 51. It also features in several novels by Dale Brown and Robert Doherty's Area 51 novelsArea 51 series, which take place after Area 51 scientists make contact with extraterrestrials.Area 51 has been used in several role-playing games as a plot element. In the game ''Conspiracy X'', it is a safe facility and base of operations for the players' counter-extraterrestrial operations. On the flip side, in the ''Call of Cthulhu (role playing game)Call of Cthulhu'' modern day conspiracy supplement ''Delta Green'', the base is the site of a foolish conspiracy's laboratory facilities for studying and intercepting otherworldly beings for study. Area 51 is the name given to a variety of unrelated products and companies, including a range of computers built by Alienware, the area51.phpbb.com - development area for the phpBB forum software, one of the areas of the Geocities web hosting service, and numerous science-fiction bookstores and bulletin boards.In 1994, Version 2.0 of the ROM for the Apple Newton personal digital assistant included the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of Area 51 in the Time Zones application as an "Easter egg (virtual)easter egg". This feature was removed (supposedly at the request of the Central Intelligence AgencyCIA) by applying a software patch, but it remained possible to bypass the patch fairly easily. cupertino.deThe world's largest model railway in Hamburg, Germany features a fictional Area 51 model in its USAAmerica section (with aliens playing basketball with base personnel).The tiny town of Rachel, Nevada (the nearest settlement to the base) enjoys minor celebrity status as being "the official home of Area 51". Located three hours from Las Vegas by car, Rachel receives a modest number of visitors year-round, and several small businesses offer food and lodging to visitors, together with aerospace and "alien" themed merchandising. The visitor numbers are swelled yearly with aviation enthusiasts hoping to catch a glimpse of the RED FLAG exerciseRed Flag exercises. A small museum sells maps, photographs, badges, and other Area 51 material, and a local inn, aptly named "The Little A'le'Inn" proudly displays a time capsule received from the production crew of ''Independence Day (movie)Independence Day''.
External links - commonsCategory:Area 51 ufo.whipnet.org - Area 51 - History, Structures, and Employeesspartechsoftware.com - Area 51 - Altered Dimensionsfas.org - Federation of American Scientists Area 51 resourcesnellis.af.mil - Nellis AFBtopozone.com - Topographic Map of the Emigrant Valley / Groom area serve.com - Area 51 timelinelasvegasnow.com - Satellite photograph of "Area 51"!rachel.dreamlandresort.com - Photographs of the "Extraterrestrial Highway"dreamlandresort.com - Local Website about activities on and around Area 51us.imdb.com - IMDB Reference: ''Hangar 18'', 1980maps.google.com - Google Maps satellite imagesr-71.org - Photographs of McCarran EG&G terminal and JANET aircraft? abovetopsecret.com - ''AboveTopSecret'' on the theory that Dugway is new "new area51" gmaps.tommangan.us - Aerial Photos from different decades, overlaid with Google Maps interface
References - Rich, Ben; Janos, Leo. (1996) ''Skunk Works''. Little, Brown & Company, ISBN 0316743003 Darlington, David. (1998) ''Dreamland Chronicles''. Henry Holt & Company, ISBN 0805060405 reviewjournal.com - Area 51 related article archive from the pages of the ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' ufomind.com - Transcript from CBS ''60 Minutes'' segment about the environmental lawsuitCategory:Lincoln County, !NevadaCategory:UFOsCategory:Un ited? States Air Force facilitiesda:Area 51 (USA)de:Area 51es:Área 51fr:Zone 51ko:에어리어 51it:Area 51he:אזור 51hu:51-es körzetnl:Area 51ja:エリア51no:Area 51pt:Área 51ro:Area 51fi:Area 51sv:Area 51zh:51区
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