Area 51
Area 51 is a heavily guarded U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada, next to the Groom Lake dry lakebed, where secret and experimental aircraft have been tested since 1955. In UFO culture, it is the legendary site of the secret study of extraterrestrial craft.
Area 51 is a restricted military area in the Nevada desert, about 130 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, centered on the Groom Lake dry lakebed. Today the facility is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is part of the military training area called the Nevada Test and Training Range. Its airfield's official name is Homey Airport; in everyday usage it is often referred to as Groom Lake, and in the early years it was also known as Paradise Ranch, and among pilots as Dreamland. Restricted airspace is in effect above the base, signs at the boundary of the area prohibit entry, and security personnel guard it closely.
History
The facility was established in 1955 by the CIA together with the Lockheed company to test the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft there, away from the public. Later, among others, the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft and the F-117 stealth fighter-bomber were also developed and tested there. For decades, the U.S. government did not even officially acknowledge the base's existence. It was first mentioned by name in a CIA history study released in 2013, which the National Security Archive research institute obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
What UFO believers claim
In UFO culture, Area 51 is regarded as the place where the U.S. government studies crashed extraterrestrial craft and their remains, often linked to the Roswell case. The legend truly spread following Bob Lazar's 1989 statements: Lazar told Las Vegas television reporter George Knapp that, at a site near the base that he called S-4, he worked on reverse engineering the propulsion systems of craft of alien origin. His claims were not supported by independent evidence, and the university degrees he named could not be verified either.
Official finding and skeptical view
According to the official finding, the base serves the development and testing of secret and experimental aircraft. According to skeptics, this is precisely what explains the legend: according to a 1997 CIA study, in the late 1950s and the 1960s a significant share of UFO reports were caused by U-2 and A-12 aircraft flying at unusually high altitudes, which the Air Force could not talk about because of secrecy. The Roswell connection also does not hold up because of the chronology: the Roswell case happened in 1947, while Area 51 was founded only eight years later. According to U.S. Air Force reports from the 1990s, the Roswell debris was left behind by a balloon from the secret Project Mogul balloon program.
Sources
- National Security Archive: The Area 51 File – Secret Aircraft and Soviet MiGs (2013. október 29.)
- Foreign Policy: Declassified – The CIA's Secret History of Area 51 (2013. augusztus 15.)
- CIA, Studies in Intelligence: Gerald K. Haines – CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 (1997)
- U.S. Air Force: Report of Air Force Research Regarding the „Roswell Incident” (1994. július)
- U.S. Air Force: The Roswell Report – Case Closed (1997)