Trivia on Area 51

The Groom Lake Base is this top-secret military base located 90 miles north of Las Vegas (which is in Nevada). It’s in grid number 51 of the Nevada Test Site, so it’s called Area 51. The United States Air Force Flight Test Center controls the base. It’s best known for testing exotic aircraft and weapons. The base was created in 1954 as a place to test the secret U-2 spyplane that was used to fly missions over the Soviet Union. Then it started to house the SR-71, A-12 and D-21 drone. The F-117A was tested there, also. In the 1980’s the base increased in size, along with the runway (which increased to the present 6 miles). Then, mysterious lights began to appear, and armed guards known as the cammo dudes started patrolling the border. The government closed many viewpoints from which the Area 51 base could be seen. In 1989, a “physicist” named Bob Lazar claimed that he worked at a base south of Area 51 and also claimed that Area 51 was testing extremely advanced aircraft and UFO’s they got by trading with the aliens. Since then, Area 51 has been thought to be the test center of captured UFOs because of the lights in the night sky.

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 United States Air Force, 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 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.

Structure-

There are the 4 main sturctures:

1) Hanger 18 –

This hanger could be used anything. Nobody knows what it’s really used for, but here are the rumors…

· The hanger is really a huge elevator which transports the secret plane Aurora, the Black Manta, and others they are testing to an elaborate underground place.

· It houses the Aurora and the Black Manta(but does not transport them anywhere).

· It could be a regular hanger.

2) The Long Runway –

You can see the runway in the photo above. It runs through the whole picture. Some people say it’s 12 miles long, some say it’s 10, but I say it’s 6. Of course, in this picture, it looks like it’s 24 miles long, and maybe it is. The runway is rumored to be the longest in the world. It’s even longer, some people say, than the length required to accomodate the landing of the space shuttle. What could such a long runway be used for? Nobody knows. Again, the rumors:

· The Aurora, (or what I think, the scramjet) has a very high touchdown speed and requires a long runway, so the plane doesn’t become a heap of trash after it lands.

· Alien spaceships, because they are not flying saucers also need a long runway.

· What we think is a runway is really a road(even though we photographed planes on it and know that this rumor is false.

· The Area 51 guys made a big runway ahead of time, just in case that they might get some advanced technology, and so they would have the space to use it right away.

3) The Guard Shack–

Every secret military base has to have a gaurd shack. If you were expecting tall steel walls, tall towers with machine-gun cannons on top, security cameras, helicopters, radar dishes, lots of security gaurds parading around with high-tech gear, you’re wrong. This gaurd shack looks like something a hermit might live in. It doesn’t do much either, except be a place where the cammo dudes can hang out. You can go up to the gaurd shack, but then you would be fined $600. This picture was probably taken by someone who ignored the warning signs and drove up to it.

4) The Large Radar Antennas –

Every military base has to have radar antennas to see attacks coming. Area 51 has 2 large radar antennas, some small radar antennas, and other sensors. All those sensors are at the Northern side of the base. It’s rumored that the Northern-most radar antenna is the biggest movable antenna in the world. It opperates at a very high power output. The large one almost always points up, but moves once in a while. Why is this important? It isn’t. I just put it here to tell you about it.

Area 51 commuters

Defense contractor EG&G maintains a private terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las 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 stay overnight at Las Vegas. These aircraft, painted white with red trim (the livery of now defunct Western Airlines), include six Boeing 737s and several smaller turboprops. Their tail numbers are registered to the U.S. Air Force.

The Government’s position on Area 51

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 civilians and normal military air traffic.

The area is protected by radar stations, and uninvited guests are met by helicopters and armed guards. Even military pilots training in the NAFR are reportedly interrogated extensively by military intelligence agents when they accidentally stray into the exclusionary “box” surrounding Groom’s airspace.

Security

These are the strange and anonymous security guards at Area 51. They are called cammo dudes, because of the camouflage that they wear. Anyway, the dudes patrol the border with their Jeep Cherokees in two teams. Wherever you go, you will see a Cherokee, although you can rarely come this close. The cammo dudes are probably not military guys, and no one knows who hired them. Perhaps they enjoy doing this. The rumors are as follows:
The Cammo Dudes are employed by:

Wackenhut Security Incorporated, the contractor that provides the security for the Nevada Test Site
EG&G Corporation under military contract
A company called Sandia.

The cammo dudes also seem to have an affiliation with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department. The cammo dudes call the sheriff, and the sheriff will take care of you. The cammo dudes themselves are very shy, maybe (but probably not) because they are the people that came out of one of Area 51’s failed experiments, and they don’t want anyone to see their face. It’s probably because they don’t want anyone to try to assassinate them, or hurt them while they are in their home.

The cammo dudes have helicopters. You can see one of them on the left. They use the helicopters mainly for security purposes, but there have been a number of occasions when the helicopter would harass viewers at the border. It would fly a few feet above the viewers throwing up dust and other debris. This, of course, is not legal, even for a bunch of weird, anonymous, social outcasts that guard government military bases.

This is a magnetic sensor. It’s in a plastic capsule about six inches long and are buried beside the road. This capsule contains the batteries. A bucket-shaped container contains the transmitter. The wires running off to either side lead to sensors that are buried a few feet apart on the roadside. These sensors transmit signals as someone passes.

This makes it impossible to break into Area 51. It could lead to immediate arrest, immediate death, and/or an immediate fine of $600 or more. (If they kill you, they take your wallet).

UFO and other conspiracy theories

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 UFO and conspiracy theory. Some of the unconventional activities claimed to be underway at Area 51 include:

The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell), 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 SDI applications or otherwise) or means of weather control.
The development of time travel technology.
Activities related to a supposed shadowy one world government.

Many of the 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 ^[10], 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.

One major theory is that Area 51 is a place which simulates the environment of the moon. In 2000-2001, Fox Television broadcast a show about Apollo moon landing hoax accusations, in which it was suggested that the whole moon landing in 1969 was a hoax and was filmed in parts of Area 51.