Area 51

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Groom Lake Salt Flats and Military Base (Image from NASA World Wind )
Groom Lake Road leads directly to Area 51.
View from Tikaboo Peak, around 2400 m high, of the Area 51 military base 40 km away

Area 51 is a military zone in southern Nevada ( USA ) owned by the United States Air Force and the US Department of Defense . The correct names are Homey Airport or Groom Lake . The restricted area is located within the large Nellis air force training area as a separate, additionally secured military facility. Area 51 is the subject of many conspiracy theories , especially those that research on extraterrestrial life forms . The existence of the restricted area was officially kept secret for decades and was only confirmed by the US secret service CIA in August 2013. The US Air Force is testing new experimental aircraft in the restricted area .

geography

Map of the region
Warning sign in front of the area 51 with guards in the background (Groom Lake Road)

Area 51 is a restricted area of ​​approximately 100 km² in Lincoln County and Nye Counties , 110 km northwest of Las Vegas . It's in the Mojave Desert . The Emigrant Valley makes up most of the area. It is framed by the Groom and Papoose mountain ranges. Groom Lake , a dry salt lake about five kilometers in diameter, lies between the two mountains . A military airfield was built on the southwestern edge of this lake ; its runway is over 8 kilometers long. There is at least one other paved runway a few kilometers further in the old lake. Four runways on the salt lake can still be seen on satellite photos ; two of them run parallel. They have the IDs 03/21 L or R and 09/27 L or R and are about 3000 m long.

Groom and Papoosesalzsee

Area 51 borders the Yucca Flats region, which is part of the former Nevada test site , where the US Department of Energy also carried out tests with nuclear weapons after the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site ( New Mexico ) (see Manhattan Project ). The Yucca Mountain nuclear facility is about 40 miles southwest of Groom Lake.

The designation Area 51 comes from the old zoning on maps of the Nevada test site.

Operations on Groom Lake

Area 51 is used for the development and testing of new aircraft. With the start of series production of these aircraft, the prototypes will be relocated to their new bases. Combat units of the US Army are stationed at Groom Lake.

U-2 program

First version of the U-2 tested in Groom Lake
Groom Lake circa 1957

Groom Lake was used as a bomb and artillery firing range during World War II . It was shut down in 1955 when the site was selected by the Lockheed Advanced Development Projects Unit (better known as Skunk Works ) team as an ideal location for test flights of the U-2 spy plane. The lake was an ideal take-off and landing site for the difficult-to-use test aircraft, and the mountain ranges and the Nevada test site, which was already cordoned off, hid the secret aircraft from public view.

Lockheed built a makeshift base on Groom Lake, which consisted of a few bunkers, manufacturing facilities, and a trailer park. The first U-2 took off in August 1955, and from mid-1956 the U-2 deployed by the CIA began their reconnaissance flights from Germany and Turkey over the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact states .

During this time, the Nevada Test Site (NTS) conducted a new series of above-ground nuclear weapons tests . The operations with the U-2 therefore had to be interrupted several times in the course of 1957. In one attempt, radioactive fallout fell over Groom Lake, forcing the site to be temporarily evacuated.

Since the main task of the U-2 was to fly over the Soviet Union, they were relocated to bases near the Soviet borders, for example Incirlik Air Base in Turkey or Peshawar in Pakistan .

A-12 Oxcart / SR-71 Blackbird Program

A-12 (on his back) measuring radar return ( radar cross-section ) at Groom Lake, 1959
First Lockheed YF-12 prototype ( Lockheed A-12 ), on the ground in Groom Lake, 1960

Even before development of the U-2 was completed, Lockheed began work on its successor, the Oxcart project , a high-altitude Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft that was later developed into the SR-71 Blackbird . The flight characteristics and maintenance requirements of the Blackbird required extensive expansion of the facilities at Groom Lake, especially the launch facilities.

When the first prototype of the A-12 Oxcart flew in 1962, the main runway had been lengthened to 2,600 m and the base consistently housed 1,000 personnel. It had a fuel store , a tower (callsign: "Dreamland") and a baseball field. Security was drastically increased, so the small civil mine on the lake was closed and the area around the base became a heavily secured restricted area. Intruders were allowed to be shot without warning.

D-21 Tagboard

The Lockheed D-21 on the fuselage of the M-21

After the shooting down of Gary Powers U-2 on May 1, 1960, the CIA looked for new ways to carry out reconnaissance deep over foreign territory. In 1962 Lockheed was commissioned with a study for a high-speed, high-flying drone . The then chief designer, Kelly Johnson , used the knowledge and components of the A-12 program and finally presented the draft of the D-21 . Flight tests on the back of an M-21 began on December 22, 1964, the first free flight finally took place on March 5, 1966, from the secret base Area 51 / Groom Lake.

Have Blue / F-117 Nighthawk program

Have Blue prototype on a test flight at Groom Lake

The first Have Blue prototype of the later Lockheed F-117 stealth bomber made its maiden flight in Groom at the end of 1977. The tests of the secret prototypes lasted until mid-1981, after which series production began. In addition to the flight characteristics tests, radar profiling , weapon tests with the F-117 and the training of the first group of F-117 pilots in combat units were carried out in Groom . The F-117's first active duty operations were then moved to the nearby Tonopah Test Range runway . There was still a high level of secrecy.

Testing of captured aircraft

HAVE DOUGHNUT, ( MiG-21F-13 ) flown over Area 51 by the United States Navy and Air Force Systems Command in 1968.

From 1967, the area was also used to test captured aircraft of Soviet types, such as the MiG-21 ( Have Donut ), the MiG-17 ( Have Drill , Have Ferry ) and the MiG-23 . These came mainly from the arsenals of (formerly) USSR-supported states such as Iraq . Before the move to Groom Lake, the location for tests of this type (with Jak-23 , MiG-15 machines) had been Wright-Patterson Air Force Base . The Air Force had a squadron (code name " Constant Peg ") equipped exclusively with Soviet-type captured aircraft, which carried out aerial combat exercises against US aircraft types on the Nellis Range site in order to train their pilots for future enemy operations. In 1967 the Vietnam War raged ; the USSR equipped North Vietnam with numerous combat aircraft. Other prey weapons such as tanks or radar systems from states under the Soviet sphere of influence were also tested in Area 51.

Later operations

F-22 during Red Flag (maneuver) with Groom Lake in the background (March 2013)

Activities at Groom Lake have continued unabated since the F-117A was operational in 1983. The base and the associated system of landing sites have been expanded. Satellite photos suggest a base that is permanently occupied by 1,000 people, plus 1,000 commuters flown in from Las Vegas every day . These shuttle flights take place with Boeing 737-600 jets from Las Vegas Airport several times a day with the Janet flights.

In 1995 the government extended the restricted area around the base to a few nearby hills (White Sides and Freedome Ridge), from which the base could be viewed beforehand. The only point at the moment from where you have a limited view of the restricted area is the summit area of Tikaboo Peak . This approximately 2400 m high mountain is about 40 km east of the Area 51 military base.

Rumor has it that the stealth UAV reconnaissance drone , a small stealth troop transport , an equally camouflaged cruise missile (Lockheed Senior Prom ) and the hypothetical Aurora aircraft were also tested at Groom Lake .

Another hangar was completed in spring 2008 and is considered the largest building in Area 51.

The Air Force is sticking to its policy of neither confirming nor denying rumors about Groom Lake and its activities there.

UFO and conspiracy theories

Secrecy measures, the connection to secret aircraft research and reports of unusual phenomena made Area 51 a central component of modern UFO and conspiracy theories. Allegedly the following extraordinary activities took place or are taking place there:

The closest civil place outside of Area 51 is the small village of Rachel ; it became a pilgrimage destination for conspiracy theorists and ufologists . Some visitors reported encounters of the first kind , in the form of unusual light phenomena along Highway 375 running through the town , which is now officially called the "Extraterrestrial Highway". In most cases, however, these phenomena could be traced back to fighter jets from nearby Nellis Air Force Base , which were performing target exercises along the highway or position lights from experimental aircraft, such as the U2, performing test flights from Area 51.

Government statements

Standardized US Air Force opinion on Area 51
1967 CIA document mentioning Area 51

The US government did not explicitly confirm the existence of Area 51 on Groom Lake until 2013; the existence of the air base was never denied. In August 2013, the existence of Area 51, also under this name, was officially confirmed by the CIA after researcher Jeffrey T. Richelson from the National Security Archives at George Washington University submitted a Freedom of Information Act application. The US Department of Defense stated that Area 51 is not an official name, but as part of the Nellis Range test area for technology and weapon systems and training area is responsible for the effectiveness of the US armed forces and the security of the United States. It confirms that certain current and past activities are classified and cannot be published.

The original text is:

'Area 51', is not an Air Force designation, but the area referred to is part of the Air Force's Nellis Complex. The complex is used for testing technologies and systems, and training for operations critical to the effectiveness of US military forces and the security of the United States. One part of the complex is located near Groom dry lake. Some specific activities and operations conducted on the Nellis Range, both past and present, remain classified and cannot be discussed publicly.

“Area 51 is not an Air Force name, but the area it refers to is part of the Air Force Nellis Complex. This complex is used for testing technologies and systems and training for operations that are critical to the effectiveness of the American armed forces and to US security. Part of the complex is on dry Groom Lake. Certain past and present activities and operations carried out on the Nellis site remain under lock and key and cannot be discussed publicly. "

The area appears on most maps as a large restricted area east of US Highway 95 (from Las Vegas to Reno ). The area does not appear in government-released satellite photos of the United States. On the military airspace map Nellis AFB Range Chart , which covers the entire area of ​​the Nellis Range and which is published by the Defense Mapping Agency , only the Nellis Air Force Base is shown without mentioning a so-called "Area 51". In the meantime, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has published images of the IKONOS satellite with a resolution of one meter on its website , showing a wide variety of systems within Nellis Air Force Base. Since the publication of the programs Google Earth or Worldwind , it has been possible to view satellite images of this location drawn over a terrain model.

Security camera on Groom Lake Road to Area 51

In the meantime, the airfield on Groom Lake, like any other more or less public airfield, has received an ICAO code : KXTA.

The area around the dry lake is a restricted flight area (R-4808N). It should be secured by radar stations, hidden motion detectors and sweat sensors that respond to human vapors. The security measures also include armed guards from a civilian security service, who are assisted by the local police if necessary. On the instructions of the then US President George W. Bush , the area of ​​operations of the Air Force near Groom Lake, Nevada is also exempt from the applicable environmental protection laws, as there were lawsuits in the early 1990s.

Area 51 apparently serves as a test flight base. Right next to the restricted area Area 51 is another area that is marked as a weapon test area on civilian maps. The Red Flag maneuver takes place regularly in the vicinity .

In August 2013, the US government had to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act confirming the existence of Area 51. According to this, it is said to have been used as a test site for the spy and reconnaissance aircraft U-2 and Oxcart during the Cold War . The area is also said to have been used for testing the lunar rover and for testing support systems that were used in the context of Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17.

The 407-page document approved by the CIA records the spy flights of the US armed forces between 1954 and 1974. Neither pilots and passengers on commercial flights nor observers on earth could explain the lightning-fast, lightning-bright light phenomena in the sky during this time. The CIA now explains the phenomena as follows: In the mid-1950s, passenger planes flew at altitudes between three and six kilometers, military aircraft such as B-47 and B-57 bombers remained under twelve kilometers. The spy planes U-2 and Oxcart, on the other hand, were specially designed to reach enormous heights. As they began to fly at altitudes greater than 18 kilometers, the air traffic controllers received increasing numbers of UFO reports. Since the spy planes operated at a height of around 20 kilometers in the stratosphere, the sun's rays were still reflected by their wings even after it had long since become dark in the deeper layers of the atmosphere. This made it look like UFOs were approaching. Hundreds of UFO sightings have now been cleared up.

"Storm Area 51" campaign

In July 2019, in order to get evidence for the conspiracy theories, the action Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us was started as a joke on the social network Facebook , which planned a "storm" of Area 51 for September 20, 2019. The campaign received a lot of media attention as an internet phenomenon, and within a short time over 2.1 million Facebook users said they would be there, and another 1.5 million were interested. The US Department of Defense issued a warning about actions involving people entering Area 51. On September 20, 2019, however, only about 2,000 people turned up in the neighboring town of Rachel, with fewer than a dozen people entering the premises.

Area 51 in pop culture

The basis is a popular topic in feature films and computer games because of its popularity. She appears in the films Raiders of the Lost Ark , Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , Groom Lake , Men Who Stare at Goats , (T) Spaceship Surprise - Period 1 , Independence Day , Men in Black , The Legacy of the Secret , among others Book , Hulk , and last 51 before. Also many television series such as Seven Days , Roswell , Knight Rider , Transformers , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate - Kommando SG-1 , EUReKA - The Secret City , JAG - In the Order of Honor , Relic Hunter , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , The X Files - The scary FBI and Taken cases mention Area 51 in individual episodes. Comics series like The Simpsons and Futurama contain some ironic allusions. In the American Dad series, however, the alien Roger lives with the Smith family because he saved Stan’s life in Area 51. The seventh episode of the sixth season also plays in Archer there.

The film Area 51 , released in 1997 by Vega 7 Entertainment, is an hour and a half documentary about the Nellis Range military base and the related stories about the aliens. It also contains an interview with an anonymous "Viktor" who is said to be an employee on Nellis and who was paid for the interview.

In many computer games, levels or sections are more or less clearly based on Area 51. This runs through all genres, from first person shooters and flight simulations to racing games. In the computer game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, for example, there is a restricted military area in the Las Venturas section, which is based on Area 51. There are similar areas in Deus Ex , the Atomic Edition by Duke Nukem 3D , the simulation game Microsoft Flight Simulator X , the racing game The Crew , Tomb Raider III , World Racing or the fantasy role-playing game World of Warcraft , in which there is one from Goblin -Engineer-operated base called Area 52 there. The racing game Asphalt 8 also includes a section called Area 51 / Secret Laboratory. In the N64 game Perfect Dark, there are also sections in a base called Area 52 . In Banjo Tooie , the amusement park world (Hex Hex Park) has an alien section that is modeled on Area 51. In the sports simulation Tony Hawk's Pro Skater you drive through the test area past dissecting tables, futuristic half-pipes and other ramps. In RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 there is an amusement park "Broom Lake" with an alien theme. In the city building simulation Sim City 4 , a secret air force base called Area 5.1 is available as a reward, from which the player can fly a fighter jet or a UFO over his city and also shoot it.

In the Miniatur Wunderland model railroad layout (Hamburg), the America section contains a small area that humorously refers to Area 51. He shows u. a. Aliens on the roof of the facility during various activities as well as underground facilities with UFOs.

In Movie Park Germany there is the water ride Area 51 - Top Secret , in which visitors drive past aliens.

The name was used in 2014 as the title of the song Area 51 by Dutch producer Hardwell together with DallasK. The instrumental piece also contains a short passage in which a distorted voice says "Maybe, Area 51 has answers to some of those questions", which alludes to the secrecy about the location. A year later, Namika mentioned Area 51 in her song Favorite Man .

literature

  • Michael Hesemann : Beyond Roswell. Silberschnur, Güllesheim 1997, ISBN 3-931652-15-7
  • David Darlington: The Dreamland Files: Area 51 - America's High-Tech Super-Secret Military Base. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-426-77300-7
  • Annie Jacobsen: Area 51 - An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. Little, Brown and Company, New York 2011. ISBN 978-0-316-13294-7

Web links

Commons : Area 51  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The (very) secret history of Area 51 independent.co.uk, July 5, 2011, accessed July 24, 2011
  2. ↑ Secret military facility: CIA document explains UFO sightings over Area 51 , spiegel.de
  3. ↑ The secret of Area 51 orf.at, accessed on July 24, 2011
  4. ↑ Amanda Holpuch, Area 51's existence confirmed by CIA as hotbed for ... aerial government testing , The Guardian, August 16, 2013.
  5. ↑ D-21 Drone - Tagboard / Senior Bowl. In: spyflight.co.uk. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012 ; Retrieved February 19, 2013 .
  6. ^ Dennis R., Jenkins: Lockheed Secret Projects: Inside the Skunk Works . 2001, ISBN 0-7603-0914-0 , pp. 52 .
  7. ^ Peter W. Merlin: Blackbird Facts. Retrieved October 16, 2014 .
  8. ↑ TV documentary " Secret Area 51 - MiGs im Sperrgebiet " by Dirk Pohlmann, first broadcast on May 27, 2009 on ARTE
  9. ↑ Tikaboo Peak Map , on dreamlandresort.com
  10. ↑ dreamlandresort.com , accessed September 16, 2012
  11. ↑ We're About To Learn A Lot More About Area 51 huffingtonpost.com, accessed August 5, 2015
  12. ↑ dn: No aliens and UFOs: The CIA confirms the existence of the military base "Area 51". In: Focus Online . August 16, 2013, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  13. ↑ George Schemitsch: Conspiracy Theories: CIA Confirms Existence of Mysterious Area 51 . In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 16, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  14. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ermsapps-web.afis.osd.mil
  15. ↑ Don't ask, don't tell: Area 51 gets airport identifier , AOPA , January 10, 2008, accessed November 18, 2010
  16. ↑ Area 51 designated with a new name. In: airforcetimes.com. January 23, 2008, archived from the original on January 16, 2013 ; accessed on August 18, 2019 .
  17. ^ The Truth Is Out There, but It's Classified nytimes.com, September 27, 2003; inside Area 51 ( Memento June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) reviewjournal.com, October 19, 1993; Retrieved November 18, 2010
  18. ↑ Presidential Determination on Classified Information Concerning the Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, NV federalregister.gov, December 24, 2002, accessed November 18, 2010
  19. ↑ CIA confirms existence of mysterious Area 51 , Die Welt Online from August 16, 2013
  20. ↑ Area 51 officially acknowledged, mapped in newly released documents , CNN Online from August 16, 2013.
  21. ↑ CIA confirms existence of mysterious Area 51 ( memento from August 16, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Südwest Presse Online from August 16, 2013
  22. ↑ No aliens and UFOs: The CIA confirms the existence of Area 51 military base - USA . In: Der Focus , August 16, 2013. Accessed August 20, 2013. 
  23. ↑ U-2 instead of UFO - The Truth about Area 51 ( Memento from August 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), on tagesschau.de from August 18, 2013
  24. ↑ No aliens in Area 51 . In: Welt am Sonntag , August 18, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  25. ↑ Area 51: Numerous UFO references invalidated in one fell swoop . In: Der Stern , August 17, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  26. ↑ Silke Hasselmann: The truth about Area 51: U-2 instead of UFO . Tagesschau.de. August 18, 2013. Archived from the original on August 21, 2013. Retrieved on August 20, 2013.
  27. ↑ Markus Becker: CIA document explains UFO sightings over Area 51 . In: Der SPIEGEL Online , August 16, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013. 
  28. ↑ Facebook flash mob: Now 1.5 million users want to storm Area 51 . In: Spiegel Online . July 17, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 17, 2019]).
  29. ↑ Feds warn UFO enthusiasts against storming Area 51: The military 'stands ready' , on cnn.com, July 16, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  30. ↑ Sebastian Kettley: Area 51 raid aftermath: What happened at Area 51? Internet asks 'how many people died?' September 25, 2019, accessed October 25, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Area 51: The Alien Interview: Video: Steven Williams, Bob Lazar, Sean David Morton, Rick Baker, David Adair, Art Bell, Tom Coleman (III), Jim Dilettoso, John Criswell, Robert Dean (IV), Michael Hesemann, Greg O'Neill, Alexa Koenig, Michael Phelan (IV), Don Mercer, Larry Finch, RC Rosenbalm, Ted Williams, Dan O'Bannon, Cindie Haynie, Jeff Broadstreet , Amazon.com

Coordinates: 37 ° 14 ′ 6 ″  N , 115 ° 48 ′ 40 ″  W.