Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,
Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.
I'm your host Benjamin Boster,
And today let's learn about Area 51.
Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force,
USAF facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range in Southern Nevada,
83 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A remote detachment administered by Edward Air Force Base,
The facility is officially called Homey Airport,
I-C-A-O-K-X-T-A-F-A-A-L-I-D-X-T-A,
Or Groom Lake,
After the salt flat next to its airfield.
Details of its operations are not made public,
But the USAF says that it is an open training range,
And it is commonly thought to support the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons.
The USAF and CIA acquired the site in 1955,
Primarily for flight tests of the Lockheed U-2 aircraft.
All research and occurrences in Area 51 are top secret or sensitive compartmented information.
The CIA publicly acknowledged the base's existence on June 25,
2013,
Through a Freedom of America Act request filed in 2005.
It has declassified documents detailing its history and purpose.
The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object folklore.
The surrounding area is a popular tourist destination.
Including the small town of Rachel on the extraterrestrial highway.
The original rectangular base of 6 by 10 miles is part of the so-called Groom Box,
A rectangular area measuring 23 by 25 miles of restricted airspace.
The area is connected to the Internal Nevada Test Site NTS Road network,
With paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to Yucca Flat.
Leading northeast from the lake,
The wide and well-maintained Groom Lake Road runs through a pass in the jumbled hills.
The road formerly led to mines in the Groom Basin,
But has been improved since their closure.
Its winding course runs past a security checkpoint,
But the restricted area around the base extends farther east.
After leaving the restricted area,
Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tickapoo Valley,
Passing the dirt road entrances to several small ranches,
Before converging with State Route 375,
The extraterrestrial highway south of Rachel.
Area 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flat region of the Nevada Test Site,
The location of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests conducted by the United States Department of Energy at NTS.
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is southwest of Groom Lake.
Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site Airport,
XTAKXTA,
On the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation.
The lake at 4,
409 feet elevation is approximately 3 plus 3 quarters of a mile from north to south,
And 3 miles from east to west at its widest point.
Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin,
The lake is 25 miles south of Rachel,
Nevada.
The origin of the name Area 51 is unclear.
It is believed to be from an Atomic Energy Commission,
AEC numbering grid.
Although Area 51 is not part of this system,
It is adjacent to Area 15.
Another explanation is that 51 was used because it was unlikely that the AEC would use the number.
According to the CIA,
The correct names for the facility are Omi Airport and Groom Lake,
Though the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam War.
The facility has also been referred to as Dreamland and Paradise Ranch,
Among other nicknames,
With the former also being the Approach Control call sign for the surrounding area.
The USAF Public Relations has referred to the facility as an operating location near Groom Dry Lake.
The special use airspace around the field is referred to as Restricted Area 4808 North,
R-4808N.
Lead and silver were discovered in the southern part of the Groom Range in 1864,
And the English company Groom Lead Mines Limited financed the Conception Mines in the 1870s,
Giving the district its name.
Nearby mines included Maria,
Willow,
And White Lake.
J.
B.
Osborne and partners acquired the controlling interest in Groom in 1876,
And Osborne's son acquired it in the 1890s.
Mining continued until 1918,
Then resumed after World War II until the early 1950s.
The airfield on the Groom Lake site began service in 1942 as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field,
And consisted of two unpaved 5,
000-foot runways.
The CIA established the Groom Lake test facility in April 1955 for Project Aquatone,
A development of the Lockheed U-2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft.
Project Director Richard M.
Bissell,
Jr.
Understood that the flight test and pilot training programs could not be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base or Lockheed's Palmdale facility,
Given the extreme secrecy surrounding the project.
He conducted a search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 under the same extreme security as the rest of the project.
He notified Lockheed,
Who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake.
According to Lockheed's U-2 designer,
Kelly Johnson,
We flew over it,
And within 30 seconds,
You knew that was the place.
It was right by a dry lake.
Man alive,
We looked at that lake,
And we all looked at each other.
It was another Edwards.
So we wheeled around,
Landed on that lake,
Taxied up to one end of it.
It was a perfect natural landing field,
As smooth as a billiard table,
Without anything being done to it.
The lake bed made an ideal strip for testing aircraft,
And the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NDS perimeter protected the site from visitors.
It was about 100 miles north of and to add it to the Nevada test site.
Johnson named the area Paradise Ranch to encourage workers to move to the new facility in the middle of nowhere,
As the CIA later described it,
And the name became shortened to The Ranch.
On May 4,
1955,
A survey team arrived at Groom Lake and laid out a 5,
000-foot north-south runway on the southwest corner of the lake bed and designated a site for a base support facility.
The Ranch initially consisted of little more than a few shelters,
Workshops,
And trailer homes in which to house its small team.
A little over three months later,
The base consisted of a single paved runway,
Three hangars,
A control tower,
And rudimentary accommodations for test personnel.
The base's few amenities included a movie theater and volleyball court.
There was also a mess hall,
Several wells,
And fuel storage tanks.
CIA Air Force and Lockheed personnel began arriving by July 1955.
The Ranch received its first U-2 delivery on July 24,
1955 from Burbank on a C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane,
Accompanied by Lockheed technicians on a Douglas DC-3.
Regular military air transport service flights were set up between Area 51 and Lockheed's offices in Burbank,
California.
To preserve secrecy,
Personnel flew to Nevada on Monday mornings and returned to California on Friday evenings.
Project Oxcart was established in August 1959 for anti-radar studies,
Aerodynamic structural tests,
And engineering designs,
And all later work on the Lockheed A-12.
This included testing at Groom Lake,
Which had inadequate facilities consisting of buildings for only 150 people,
A 5,
000-foot asphalt runway,
And limited fuel,
Hangar,
And shop space.
Groom Lake had received the name Area 51 when A-12 test facility construction began in September 1960,
Including a new 8,
500-foot runway to replace the existing one.
Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company,
RECO,
Began construction of Project 51 on October 1,
1960,
With double-shift construction schedules.
The contractor upgraded base facilities and built a new 10,
000-foot runway diagonally across the southwest corner of the lakebed.
They marked an Archimedean spiral on the dry lake,
Approximately two miles across,
So that an A-12 pilot approaching the end of the overrun could abort instead of plunging into the sagebrush.
Area 51 pilots called it the hook.
For crosswind landings,
They marked two unpaved airstrips,
Runways 927 and 321,
On the dry lakebed.
By August 1961,
Construction of the essential facilities was complete.
Three surplus Navy hangars were erected on the base's north side,
While Hangar 7 was new construction.
The original U-2 hangars were converted to maintenance and machine shops.
Facilities in the main cantonment area included workshops and buildings for storage and administration,
A commissary,
A control tower,
A fire station,
And housing.
The Navy also contributed more than 130 surplus BABBIT duplex housing units for long-term occupancy facilities.
Older buildings were repaired,
And additional facilities were constructed as necessary.
A reservoir pond surrounded by trees served as a recreational area one mile north of the base.
Other recreational facilities included a gymnasium,
A movie theater,
And a baseball diamond.
A permanent aircraft fuel tank farm was constructed by early 1962 for the special JP-7 fuel required by the A-12.
Seven tanks were constructed,
With a total capacity of 1,
320,
000 gallons.
Security was enhanced for the arrival of Oxcart,
And the small mine was closed in the Groom Basin.
In January 1962,
The Federal Aviation Administration,
FAA,
Expanded the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Groom Lake,
And the lakebed became the center of a 600-square-mile addition to restricted area R-4808N.
The CIA facility received eight USAF F-101 Voodoos for training,
Two T-33 Shooting Star trainers for proficiency flying,
A C-130 Hercules for cargo transport,
A U-3A for administrative purposes,
A helicopter for search and rescue,
And a Cessna 180 for liaison use.
And Lockheed provided an F-104 Starfighter for use as a chase plane.
The first A-12 test aircraft was covertly trucked from Burbank on February 26,
1962,
And arrived at Groom Lake on February 28.
It made its first flight April 26,
1962,
When the base had over 1,
000 personnel.
The closed airspace above Groom Lake was the Nellis Air Force Range airspace,
And pilots saw the A-12 20 to 30 times.
Groom was also the site of the first Lockheed D-21 drone test flight on December 22,
1964.
By the end of 1963,
Nine A-12s were at Area 51,
Assigned to the CIA-operated 1,
129th Special Activities Squadron.
Following the loss of Gary Power's U-2 over the Soviet Union,
There were several discussions about using the A-12 Oxcart as an unpiloted drone aircraft.
Although Kelly Johnson had come to support the idea of drone reconnaissance,
He opposed the development of an A-12 drone,
Contending that the aircraft was too large and complex for such conversion.
However,
The Air Force agreed to fund the study of a high-speed,
High-altitude drone aircraft in October 1962.
The Air Force's interest seems to have moved the CIA to take action.
The project designated Q-12.
By October 1963,
The drone's design had been finalized.
At the same time,
The Q-12 underwent a name change.
To separate it from the other A-12-based projects,
It was renamed the D-21.
The 12 was reversed to 21.
Tagboard was the project's codename.
The first D-21 was completed in the spring of 1964 by Lockheed.
After four more months of checkouts and static tests,
The aircraft was shipped to Groom Lake and reassembled.
It was to be carried by a two-seat derivative of the A-12,
Designated the M-21.
When the D-21 M-21 reached the launch point,
The first step would be to blow off the D-21's inlet and exhaust covers.
With the D-21 M-21 at the correct speed and altitude,
The LCO would start the ramjet and the other systems of the D-21.
With the D-21's systems activated and running and the launch aircraft at the correct point,
The M-21 would begin a slight pushover.
The LCO would push a final button and the D-21 would come off the pylon.
Difficulties were addressed throughout 1964-1965 at Groom Lake with various technical issues.
Captive flights showed unforeseen aerodynamic difficulties.
By late January 1966,
More than a year after the first captive flight,
Everything seemed ready.
The first D-21 launch was made on March 5,
1966 with a successful flight with the D-21 flying 120 miles with limited fuel.
A second D-21 flight was successful in April 1966 with the drone flying 1,
200 miles reaching Mach 3.
3 at 90,
000 feet.
An accident on July 30,
1966 with a fully fueled D-21 on a planned checkout flight suffered from an un-start of the drone after its separation,
Causing it to collide with the M-21 launch aircraft.
The two crewmen ejected and landed in the ocean 150 miles offshore.
Kelly Johnson personally canceled the entire program having had serious doubts about its feasibility from the start.
A number of D-21s had already been produced and rather than scrapping the whole effort,
Johnson again proposed to the Air Force that they be launched from a B-52H bomber.
By late summer of 1967,
The modification work to both the D-21,
Now designated D-21B,
And the B-52Hs was complete.
The test program could now resume.
The test missions were flown out of Groom Lake with the actual launches over the Pacific.
The first D-21B to be flown was Article 501,
The prototype.
The first attempt was made on September 28,
1967 and ended in complete failure.
As the B-52 was flying toward the launch point,
The D-21B fell off the pylon.
The B-52H gave a sharp lurch as the drone fell free.
The booster fired and was quiet aside from the ground.
The failure was traced to a stripped nut on the forward right attachment point on the pylon.
Several more tests were made,
None of which met with success.
However,
The fact is that the resumptions of D-21 tests took place against a changing reconnaissance background.
The A-12 had finally been allowed to deploy and the SR-71 was soon to replace it.
At the same time,
New developments in reconnaissance satellite technology were nearing operation.
Up to this point,
The limited number of satellites available restricted coverage to the Soviet Union.
A new generation of reconnaissance satellites could soon cover targets anywhere in the world.
The satellite's resolution would be comparable to that of aircraft,
But without the political risk.
Time was running out for the tagboard.
Several more test flights,
Including two over China,
Were made from Beale AFB,
California,
In 1969 and 1970,
To varying degrees of success.
On July 15,
1971,
Kelly Johnson received a wire canceling the D-21B program.
The remaining drones were transferred by a C-5A and placed in dead storage.
The tooling used to build the D-21Bs was order destroyed.
Like the A-12 Oxcart,
The D-21B tagboard drones remained a black airplane,
Even in retirement.
Their existence was not suspected until August 1976,
When the first group was placed in storage at the Davis-Monson AFB Military Storage and Disposition Center.
A second group arrived in 1977.
They were labeled GTD-21Bs.
GT stood for ground training.
Davis-Monson is an open base,
With public tours of the storage area at the time,
So the odd-looking drones were soon spotted and photos began appearing in magazines.
Speculations about the D-21Bs circulated within aviation circles for years,
And it was not until 1982 that details of the tagboard program were released.
However,
It was not until 1993 that the B-52 D-21B program was made public.
That same year,
The surviving D-21Bs were released to museums.
The United States government has provided minimal information regarding Area 51.
The area surrounding the lake is permanently off-limits to both civilian and normal military air traffic.
Security clearances are checked regularly.
Cameras and weaponry are not allowed.
Even military pilots training in the NAFR risk disciplinary action if they stray into the exclusionary box surrounding Groom's airspace.
Surveillance is supplemented using buried motion sensors.
Area 51 is a common destination for Janet,
A small fleet of passenger aircraft operated on behalf of the Air Force to transport military personnel,
Primarily from Harry Reid International Airport.
The United States Geological Survey,
USGS,
Topographic map for the area only shows the long-disused Groom Mine,
But USGS aerial photographs of the site in 1959 and 1968 were publicly available.
A civil aviation chart published by the Nevada Department of Transportation shows a large restricted area,
Defined as part of the Nellis Restricted Airspace.
The National Atlas shows the area as lying within the Nellis Air Force Base.
There are higher resolution and newer images available from other satellite imagery providers,
Including Russian providers and the ICONOS.
These show the runway markings,
Base facilities,
Aircraft,
And vehicles.
In 1998,
USAF officially acknowledged the site's existence.
On June 25,
2013,
The CIA released an official history of the U-2 and Oxcart projects,
Which acknowledged that the U-2 was tested at Area 51 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in 2005 by Jeffrey T.
Richelson of George Washington University's National Security Archive.
It contains numerous references to Area 51 and Groom Lake,
Along with a map of the area.
Media reports stated that releasing the CIA history was the first governmental acknowledgment of Area 51's existence.
Rather,
It was the first official acknowledgment of specific activity at the site.
In 1994,
Five unnamed civilian contractors and widows of contractors sued the Air Force and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The suits sought compensation for injuries,
Claiming that the Air Force had illegally handled toxic materials,
And that the EPA had failed in its duty to enforce the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
Which governs the handling of dangerous materials.
They also sought detailed information about the chemicals,
Hoping that this would facilitate the medical treatment of survivors.
Congressman Lee Hamilton,
Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
Told 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl,
The government invoked the state's secrets privilege and petitioned U.
S.
District Judge Philip Proe to disallow disclosure of classified documents or examination of secret witnesses,
Claiming that it would threaten national security.
Judge Proe rejected the government's argument.
In response,
President 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,
The judge dismissed the suit due to lack of evidence.
Jonathan Turley,
The attorney for the plaintiffs,
Appealed to the U.
S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on the grounds that the government was abusing its power to classify material.
Air Force Secretary Sheila E.
Widnall filed a brief which stated 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 the appeal and the U.
S.
Supreme Court refused to hear it,
Putting an end to the complainant's case.
The president annually issues a determination continuing the Groom exception,
Which is the only formal recognition that the government has ever given that Groom Lake is more than simply another part of the Nellis Complex.
An unclassified memo on the safe handling of F-116 Nighthawk material was posted on the Air Force website in 2005.
This discussed the same materials for which the complainants had requested information,
Which the government had claimed was classified.
The memo was removed shortly after journalists became aware of it.
In December 2007,
Pilots noticed that the base had appeared in their Aircraft Navigation System's latest JEPISON database revision with the ICAO Airport Identifier Code of KXTA and listed as HOMI Airport.
The probably inadvertent release of the airport data led to advice by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association,
AOPA,
That student pilots should be explicitly warned about KXTA,
Not to consider it as a waypoint or destination for any flight,
Even though it now appears in public navigation databases.
The perimeter of the base is marked out by orange posts and patrolled by guards in white pickup trucks in camouflage fatigues.
The guards are popularly referred to as camo dudes by enthusiasts.
The guards will not answer questions about their employers.
However,
According to the New York Daily News,
There are indications they are employed through a contractor such as AECOM.
Signage around the base perimeter advises that deadly force is authorized against trespassers.
Technology is also heavily used to maintain the border of the base.
This includes surveillance cameras and motion detectors.
Some of these motion detectors are placed some distance away from the base on public land to notify guards of people approaching.
Duane A.
Day published Astronauts and Area 51,
The Skylab Incident,
In the Space Review in January 2006.
It was based on a memo written in 1974 to CIA Director William Colby by an unknown CIA official.
The memo reported that astronauts on board Skylab had inadvertently photographed a certain location.
There were specific instructions not to do this.
Redacted was the only location which had such an instruction.
The name of the location was obscured,
But the context led Day to believe that the subject was Groom Lake.
Day wrote that the CIA considered no other spot on Earth to be as sensitive as Groom Lake.
Even within the agency's National Photographic Interpretation Center that handled classified reconnaissance satellite photographs,
Images of the site were removed from film rolls and stored separately,
As not all photo interpreters had security clearance for the information.
The memo details debate between federal agencies regarding whether the images should be classified,
With Department of Defense agencies arguing that it should,
And NASA and the State Department arguing that it should not be classified.
The memo itself questions the legality of retroactively classifying unclassified images.
The memo includes handwritten remarks,
Apparently by Director of Central Intelligence Colby.
Secretary of State Rusk did raise it,
Said State Department people felt strongly,
But he inclined,
Leave decision to me,
DCI.
I confess some question over need to protect,
Since 1.
USSR has it from own sats.
2.
What really does it reveal?
3.
If exposed,
Don't we just say classified USAF work is done there?
The declassified documents do not disclose the outcome of the discussions regarding the Skylab imagery.
The debate proved moot,
As the photograph appeared in the federal government's archive of satellite imagery,
Along with the remaining Skylab photographs.
Area 51 has become a focus of modern conspiracy theories due to its secretive nature and connection to classified aircraft research.
Theories include the storage,
Examination,
And reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft,
Including materials supposedly recovered at Roswell,
The study of their occupants,
And the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology.
Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.
The development of exotic energy weapons for the Strategic Defense Initiative,
SDI,
Or other weapons programs.
The development of weather control.
The development of time travel and teleportation technology.
The development of exotic propulsion systems related to the Aurora program.
Activities related to the conspiracy theory of a one-world government.
Many of the hypotheses concern underground facilities at Groom,
Or at Papoose Lake,
Also known as S-4 location,
8.
5 miles south,
And include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system,
A disappearing airstrip nicknamed the Cheshire Airstrip,
After Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cad,
Which briefly appears when water is sprayed onto its camouflaged asphalt,
And engineering based on alien technology.
In the mid-1950s,
Civilian aircraft flew under 20,
000 feet,
While military aircraft flew up to 40,
000 feet.
The U-2 began flying above 60,
000 feet,
And there was an increasing number of UFO sighting reports.
Sightings occurred most often during early evening hours,
When airline pilots flying west saw the U-2's silver wings reflect the setting sun,
Giving the aircraft a fiery appearance.
Many sighting reports came to the Air Force's Project Blue Book,
Which investigated UFO sightings through air traffic controllers and letters to the government.
The project checked U-2 and later Oxcart flight records to eliminate the majority of UFO reports that it received during the late 1950s and 1960s,
Although it could not reveal to the letter writers the truth behind what they saw.
Similarly,
Veterans of experimental projects,
Such as Oxcart at Area 51,
Agree that their work inadvertently prompted many of the UFO sightings and other rumors.
The shape of Oxcart was unprecedented with its wide disc-like fuselage designed to carry vast quantities of fuel.
Commercial pilots cruising over Nevada at dusk would look up and see the bottom of Oxcart whiz by at 2,
000 plus miles per hour.
The aircraft's titanium body,
Moving as fast as a bullet,
Would reflect the sun's rays in a way that could make anyone think UFO.
They believe that the rumors helped maintain secrecy over Area 51's actual operations.
The veterans deny the existence of a vast underground railroad system.
On October 14,
1988,
The syndicated television broadcast UFO Cover-Up Live introduced Americans to the Majestic 12 hoax.
It featured the first public mention of Nevada's Area 51 as a site associated with aliens.
Bob Lazar claimed in 1989 that he had worked at Area 51's Sector 4,
S4,
Said to be located underground inside the Papoose Range,
Near Papoose Lake.
He claimed that he was contracted to work with alien spacecraft that the government had in its possession.
Similarly,
The 1996 documentary Dreamland,
Directed by Bruce Burgess,
Included an interview with a 71-year-old mechanical engineer who claimed to be a former employee at Area 51 during the 1950s.
His claims included that he had worked on a flying disc simulator,
Which had been based on a disc originating from a crashed extraterrestrial craft and was used to train pilots.
He also claimed to have worked with an extraterrestrial being named J-Rod and described as a telepathic translator.
In 2004,
Dan Burish,
Pseudonym of Dan Crane,
Claimed to have worked on cloning alien viruses at Area 51,
Also alongside the alien named J-Rod.
Burish's scholarly credentials are the subject of much debate,
As he was apparently working as a Las Vegas parole officer in 1989,
While also earning a PhD at State University of New York.
In July 2019,
More than two million people responded to a joke proposal to storm Area 51,
Which appeared in an anonymous Facebook post.
The event scheduled for the next week was September 20,
2019,
Was billed as Storm Area 51,
They Can't Stop All of Us,
An attempt to seize them aliens.
Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews said the government would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area or retrain American Armed Forces.
Two music festivals in rural Nevada,
Alien Stock and Storm Area 51 Base Camp,
Were subsequently organized to capitalize on the popularity of the original Facebook event.
Between 1,
500 and 3,
000 people showed up at the festivals,
While over 150 people made the journey over several miles of rough roads to get near the gates to Area 51.
Seven people were reportedly arrested at the event.
Because of Area 51's prominence in relation to aliens and conspiracy theories,
It has often been used as a setting and theme in popular culture,
Especially in science fiction works involving aliens.
