Home Bases. Nellis Air Force Base Area Base Directory. The Area 51 Raid. More About Area My Profile News Home Page. Top Air Force Headlines. The first is the U-2 spy plane , which helped the US keep an eye on the growing nuclear threat out of the Soviet Union. The Soviets conducted their first atomic bomb test in and started to intercept aircraft heading toward its borders in part to keep that program secret.
In , the Air Force began looking for a plane that could fly so high it could avoid detection and anti-aircraft missiles, about 70, feet in the air, and travel long-enough distances — 3, miles or so — without needing to refuel. The defense contractor Lockheed Martin designed and built one, the U-2, in just eight months. Such funds and presidential backing allowed engineers and others to work out many of the initial kinks.
They would do so, turning the U-2 into one of the most important planes in US intelligence and military history. But on May 1, , a U-2 plane was shot down over Soviet airspace. The pilot, Gary Powers, and plane were both recovered, forcing the US to admit it was spying. That eventually led to the development of the SR Blackbird , which began flight testing on December 22, It was around that time that the testing area for these aircraft became known as Area More hangars, runways, housing units, and other facilities were installed in order to keep a burgeoning, secret spy-plane program running.
But because the US government was making aircraft for the express purpose of beating the Soviet Union and others technologically, secrecy was of the utmost importance. It was the Cold War, after all. Here are just a couple of examples of what they did: Employees mostly used planes to travel in and out of the facility. According to the CIA , components used to create the U-2 would be disassembled, placed on a plane, and then reassembled on-site at Area The CIA also encouraged the myth that UFOs were flying around Area 51 because it helped obfuscate what was really going on: the testing of odd-looking, high-flying, lightning-fast, never-before-seen aircraft.
The secrecy continues to this day, and what goes on there is jealously guarded. But some activities that happen there are known. Jacobsen told Vox that the US military will train foreign fighters there sometimes, allowing the troops to practice on rough, remote terrain well out of sight of the public. She also believes Area 51 remains a place for American armed forces to develop and test the next generation of aircraft and weapons of war. One would think that America's much mythicized top secret military base would be under closer guard, but make no mistake.
They are watching. Beyond the gate, cameras see every angle. On the distant hilltop, there's a white pickup truck with a tinted windshield peering down on everything below. Locals says the base knows every desert tortoise and jackrabbit that hops the fence.
Others claim there are embedded sensors in the approaching road. What exactly goes on inside of Area 51 has led to decades of wild speculation.
There are, of course, the alien conspiracies that galactic visitors are tucked away somewhere inside. One of the more colorful rumors insists the infamous Roswell crash was actually a Soviet aircraft piloted by mutated midgets and the wreckage remains on the grounds of Area Some even believe that the U.
For all the myths and legends, what's true is that Area 51 is very real—and still very active. There may not be aliens or a moon landing movie set inside those fences, but something is going on and only a select few are privy to what's happening further down that closely monitored wind-swept Nevada road. The beginning of Area 51 is directly related to the development of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. After World War II, the Soviet Union lowered the Iron Curtain around themselves and the rest of the Eastern bloc, creating a near intelligence blackout to the rest of the world.
When the Soviets backed North Korea's invasion of South Korea in June , it became increasingly clear that the Kremlin would aggressively expand its influence. America worried about the USSR's technology, intentions, and ability to launch a surprise attack—only a decade removed from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the early s, the U.
Navy and U. Air Force sent low-flying aircraft on reconnaissance missions over the USSR, but they were at constant risk of being shot down.
In November , President Eisenhower approved the secret development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft called the U-2 program. One of the first orders of business was to track down a remote, covert location for training and testing. Known by its map designation as Area 51, this middle-of-nowhere site became a new top-secret military base. March 6, - A citizen suit between former employees at Area 51 and the Department of Defense is filed. The plaintiffs former employees allege violations of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act "in the storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous waste at the operating location near Groom Lake.
July 23, - A citizen suit between former employees at Area 51 and the Environmental Protection Agency is filed. The court determines that the administrator of the EPA "completed her statutory duties with regard to the inspection and inventory of the operating location near Groom Lake. April - A Russian-built satellite reveals views of Area Bush signs a memorandum to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The memorandum to the Administrator states, "I find that it is in the paramount interest of the United States to exempt the United States Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, the subject of litigation, from any applicable requirement for the disclosure to unauthorized persons of classified information concerning that operating location.
Jeffrey T. The documents claim the site's secret status was a way to keep information from the Soviets, rather than to cover-up an alien encounter. He says, "First I had people go look at the records on Area 51, to make sure there was no alien down there. March 24, - On "Jimmy Kimmel Live," presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says if elected, she would open government files on any unexplained aerial phenomenon barring any threats to national security.
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