Fall Asleep While Learning About Area 51

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about Area 51. I'm not going to lie, I thought there was going to be a lot more about aliens and other interesting topics in this article. It was way more docile. Good luck staying awake for much of any of this. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome back,

Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

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.

A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base,

The facility is officially called Homie Airport,

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 systems.

The USAF and CIA acquired the site in 1955,

Primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft.

The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object UFO folklore.

It has never been declared a secret base,

But all research and occurrences in Area 51 are top secret sensitive compartmented information,

TSSCI.

The CIA publicly acknowledged the base's existence on the 25th of June 2013,

Following a Freedom of Information Act,

FOIA,

Request filed in 2005,

And declassified documents detailing its history and purpose.

Area 51 is located on the southern portion of Nevada,

83 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

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 now 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-Side NTS road network,

With paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to Yucca Flat.

Leading northeast from the lake and 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 Ticaboo 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 on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation.

The lake,

At 4,

409 feet elevation,

Is approximately 3 3⁄4 miles 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 numbering grid,

Although Area 51 is not part of the 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 Central Intelligence Agency,

CIA,

The correct names for the facility are Homie 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.

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 1492 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 UT 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 secrecies 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 immigrant valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter protected the site from visitors.

It was about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land,

Designated Area 51 on the map,

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 the 4th of July,

The CIA moved the ranch.

On the 4th of May,

1955,

A survey team arrived at Groom Lake and laid out a 5,

000 foot north-south runway on the northwest 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 the 24th of July 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 on Project 51 on the 1st of October 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,

And airstrips.

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 main hangars,

And the new U-2 hangars were built on the north side of the base.

The U-2 hangars were converted to main hangars,

And the new U-2 hangars were built on the south side of the base.

The U-2 hangars were converted to main hangars,

And the new U-2 hangars were built on the south side of the base.

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 BABUT 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.

32 million gallons.

Security was enhanced for the arrival of Oxcart,

And the small mine was closed in the Croom Basin.

In January 1962,

The Federal Aviation Administration,

FAA,

Expanded the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Croom 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 the 26th of February 1962 and arrived at Croom Lake on the 28th of February.

It made its first flight the 26th of April 1962,

When the base had over 1,

000 personnel.

The closed airspace above Croom Lake was within the Nellis Air Force Range airspace,

And pilots saw the A-12 20 to 30 times.

Croom was also the site of the first Lockheed D-21 drone test flight on the 22nd of December 1964.

At the end of 1963,

Nine A-12s were at Area 51,

Assigned to the CIA-operated 1,

129th Special Activity Squadron.

Following the loss of Gary Powers 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 a 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 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 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 and 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 the 5th of March 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 the 30th of July 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.

One crew member was picked up by a helicopter,

But the other,

Having survived the aircraft breakup and ejection,

Drowned when seawater entered his pressure suit.

Kelly Johnson personally cancelled 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 at the Air Force that they be launched from a B-52H bomber.

By late summer of 1967,

The modification worked 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 the 28th of September 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 quite a sight 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 slightest 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 the 15th of July 1971,

Kelly Johnson received a wire cancelling 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-Monthan AFB Military Storage and Disposition Center.

A second group arrived in 1977.

They were labeled GTE.

The GTE D-21Bs.

GTE stood for ground training.

Davis-Monthan 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.

Speculation 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.

During the Cold War,

One of the missions carried out by the United States was the test and evaluation of captured Soviet fighter aircraft.

Beginning in the late 1960s and for several decades,

Area 51 played host to an assortment of Soviet-built aircraft.

Munir Redfa's defection with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 from Iraq,

Or Israel's Mossad in Operation Diamond,

Led to the Have Donut,

Have Drill,

And Have Ferry programs.

The first MiGs flown in the United States were used to evaluate the aircraft in performance,

Technical,

And operational capabilities,

Pitting the types against U.

S.

Fighters.

This was not a new mission,

As testing of foreign technology by the USAF began during World War II.

After the war,

Testing of acquired foreign technology was performed by the Air Technical Intelligence Center,

ATIC,

Which became very influential during the Korean War,

Under the direct command of the Air Material Control Department.

In 1961,

ATIC became the Foreign Technology Division,

FTD,

And was reassigned to Air Force Systems Command.

ATIC personnel were sent anywhere where foreign aircraft could be found.

The focus of Air Force Systems Command limited the use of the fighter as a tool with which to train the frontline tactical fighter pilots.

Air Force Systems Command recruited its pilots from the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base,

California,

Who were usually graduates from various test pilot schools.

Tactical Air Command selected its pilots primarily from the ranks of the weapons school graduates.

In August 1966,

Iraqi Air Force fighter pilot Captain Munir Redfa defected,

Flying his MiG-21 to Israel after being ordered to attack Iraqi Kurd villages with napalm.

His aircraft was transferred to Groom Lake in late 1967 for study.

Israel loaned the MiG-21 to the U.

S.

Air Force from January 1968 to April 1968.

In 1968,

The U.

S.

Air Force and Navy jointly formed a project known as Havdonut,

In which Air Force Systems Command,

Tactical Air Command,

And the U.

S.

Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 4,

BX-4,

Flew this acquired Soviet-made aircraft and simulated air combat training.

As U.

S.

Possession of the Soviet MiG-21 was itself secret,

It was tested at Groom Lake.

A joint Air Force-Navy team was assembled for a series of dogfight tests.

Comparisons between the F-4 and the MiG-21 indicated that,

On the surface,

They were evenly matched.

The Havdonut tests showed the skill of the man in the cockpit was what made the difference.

When the Navy or Air Force pilots flew the MiG-21,

The results were a draw.

The F-4 would win some fights,

The MiG-21 would win others.

There were no clear advantages to the MiG-21.

The problem was not with the planes,

But with the pilots flying them.

The pilots would not fly either plane to its limits.

One of the Navy pilots was Marlon W.

Dock Townsend,

Then commander of VF-121,

The F-4 training squadron at Nass-Miramar.

He was an engineer and a Korean War veteran,

And had flown almost every Navy aircraft.

When he flew against the MiG-21,

He would outmaneuver it every time.

The Air Force pilots would not go vertical in the MiG-21.

The Havdonut project officer was Tom Cassidy,

A pilot with VX-4,

The Navy's air development squadrons at Point Mugu.

He had been watching as Townsend waxed the Air Force MiG-21 pilots.

Cassidy climbed into the MiG-21 and went up against Townsend's F-4.

This time the result was far different.

Cassidy was willing to fight in the vertical,

Flying the plane to the point where it was buffeting,

Just above the stall.

Cassidy was able to get on the F-4's tail.

After the flight,

They realized the MiG-21 turned better than the F-4 at lower speeds.

The key was for the F-4 to keep its speed up.

An F-4 had defeated the MiG-21.

The weakness of the Soviet plane had been found.

Further test flights confirmed what was learned.

It was also clear that the MiG-21 was a formidable enemy.

United States pilots would have to fly much better than they had been to beat it.

This would require a special school to teach advanced air combat techniques.

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 Reed 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 civilian 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 IKONOS.

These show the runway markings,

Base facilities,

Aircraft,

And vehicles.

In 1998,

USAF officially acknowledged the site's existence.

On the 25th of June 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 acknowledgement of Area 51's existence.

Rather,

It was the first official acknowledgement of specific activity at the site.

In 1994,

Five unnamed civilian contractors and the widows of contractors Walter Caza and Robert Frost sued the Air Force and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

They alleged that they had been present when large quantities of unknown chemicals had been burned in open pits and trenches at Groom.

Rutgers University biochemists analyzed biopsies from the complainants and found high levels of dioxin,

Dibenzofrin,

And trichloroethylene in their body fat.

The complaints alleged that they had sustained skin,

Liver,

And respiratory injuries due to their work at Groom,

And that this had contributed to the deaths of Frost and Caza.

The suit sought compensation for the 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 H.

Hamilton,

Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,

Told 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl,

The Air Force is classifying all information about Area 51 in order to protect themselves from a lawsuit.

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 this would expose classified information and threaten national security.

Judge Proe rejected the government's argument,

So President Clinton issued a presidential determination exempting what is called the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake,

Nevada,

From environmental disclosure laws.

Consequently,

Proe dismissed the suit due to lack of evidence.

Jonathan Turley,

The attorney who was handling the lawsuit,

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.

Secretary of Air Force Shyla 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 Turley's appeal and the U.

S.

Supreme Court refused to hear it,

Putting an end to the complainant's case.

Reviews

I thought it would be more interesting (as you said) but it wasn’t that boring either. Still, out like a light in no time at all. 😂😂
Thank you! 😊😊