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Sep 19, 2019 · Annie Jacobsen, who has written about the history of Area 51, told the BBC that some of the world's most advanced espionage programmes are at the site. "Area 51 is a test and training facility ...
Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air ... then resumed after World War II until the early 1950s. ... Area 51 pilots called it "The Hook ...
Oct 21, 2024 · The site became known as Area 51, which was its designation on maps of the Atomic Energy Commission. Conspiracy theories gained support in the late 1980s, when a man alleging to have worked at the installation claimed that the government was examining recovered alien spacecraft. Lockheed U-2 U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 in flight, 2003.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Spy Games and Unmarked Planes
- A War Wakes Up The Desert
- Keeping The Cold War Cool
- "Day Or Night, You Could Get A Steak"
- Flying Saucers and Secrets
- A Pop Culture Juggernaut
- Keeping Our Eyes on The Skies
Here's what we do know about Area 51: Today, the U.S. Air Force uses the 38,400-acre patch of desert as a training site. Sometimes called the Nevada Test and Training Range, the base is located next to a salt flat called Groom Lake and is home to some of the longest runways in the world. The closest town is Rachel, Nevada, population 54. The airspa...
Not much was happening on this swath of land before World War II. In 1864, prospectors discovered silver and leadaround Groom Lake salt flat. A man named Patrick Sheahan built a humble homestead and founded Groom Mine in 1889. The Sheahans' homestead was about as isolated as it gets; Las Vegas wasn't even founded as a city until 1905 and was inacce...
In March 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was worried that America's lack of knowledge of Russia's military developments might leave America vulnerable to attack. So Eisenhower recruited a panel of expertsto figure out how the United States could use science to thwart a potential Russian attack. One thing was clear: The U.S. would need eyes in ...
In a 2010 interview with the Seattle Times, former Area 51 contractor James Noce recalled that the food was particularly good in the '60s. Professional chefs hired away from Las Vegas restaurants could make just about anything. "Day or night, you could get a steak," Noce said, "whatever you wanted." Through the years, the CIA and Air Force develope...
In the late 1950s and early '60s, calls and letters about UFO sightings trickled in to air traffic control and the Air Force. These reports were, in large part, coming from airline pilots flying from east to west at dusk. They reported seeing fiery disks, flying saucers, at altitudes "too high" for any man-made plane. At the time, as far as the pub...
The existence of the base became America's worst-kept secret in the mid-1990s. Though passing references to the base had appeared in the media before, the first major Hollywood production to specifically feature the base was the 1996 summer blockbuster turned cult classic, "Independence Day." More recently, it was social mediathat brought attention...
That's about all we know about Area 51. As for UFOs, there's a bit more: The government's investigationof unidentified phenomena did not end with Operation Blue Book. In August 2020, the Pentagon announced the formation of a new task force to better understand the nature and origin of such reports. (In 2017, the Pentagon admitted that it had been r...
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- Jessica Learish
Area 51 is a U.S. Air Force military installation located at Groom Lake in southern Nevada. Area 51 is an active military installation. It is administered by Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Area 51 is not accessible to the public and is under 24-hour surveillance. The only confirmed use of the installation is as a flight-testing ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 1, 2024 · Area 51 is located 120 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, near the small towns of Rachel and Hiko. The title "Area 51" seems to come from the designation the base had on Atomic Energy ...
Jun 10, 2011 · Why this area, which the government only officially recognized in 2013, became designated as Area 51 isn’t exactly known, but diagrams from the 1960s refer to it as Area 51. It’s thought this number was used by the now-dissolved Atomic Energy Commission in its grid naming system for the land. Nearby is the Nellis Air Force Base, which has ...
