'For The "Area 51" Fans...'

[Panthera Pardus Nigresco]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7302869&page=1

[Hans Jaeger]

What's your take on it, Panther?

[Panthera Pardus Nigresco]

As long as no harm is being done, I figure let the people believe what they want....

[Mikha'el Ephraim]

I remember the first time I heard about Groom Lake. I was a kid and I got a 1/48 scale model of a U-2C made by Testors Corp. On the instruction sheet's front page, I read about the initial development of the plane and the A-11/12/SR-71 at a place called "The Ranch" "Watertown" or "Groom Lake". Later on I heard the names Dreamland and Area 51. Years later I bought the Testors Aurora Spy Plane kits which had 2 satellite photos of Groom Lake. One from 1968, the other from 1988. It was the first time I had ever seen the base. Since then, I have studied the history around that base and the DOE sites nearby which are equally interesting. A lot of cool aviation stuff there that is cutting edge. I remember when Freedom Ridge was still open and you could overlook the base. One guy caught a Mig-29 on film taxiing to the active. Others have seen Migs flying in and out of the base. That's not to mention all the super secret aircraft and hardware the US works on there. Would be neat to see more of the older programs become declassified one day. Till then, the base's activities should remain secret.

[donp40]

I must admit to being fascinated by the whole thing. As much as I'd like to believe the UFO thing, I find it hard to imagine that with all the people involved, that no one had a photo, or came forward with information of what they had seen. I can assure you, I would have, threat from the government or not.

[Toastmaker]

I must admit to being fascinated by the whole thing. As much as I'd like to believe the UFO thing, I find it hard to imagine that with all the people involved, that no one had a photo, or came forward with information of what they had seen. I can assure you, I would have, threat from the government or not.




This may be why nobody ever tells you anything. . .


:D

[Foggy]

The Aurora aircraft with the scramjet engine flies out of Groom Lake on test missions on rare occasions. It is so fast there is no atmospheric military missions it could handily perform and it is not a spacecraft. It probably is a materiels and avionics test bed.

Responsible for the mysterious supersonic booming sounds over California that is attributed to seismic activity. Supposedly can take off west over California (restricted over any other civilian area) do a loop mission out over half the Pacific Ocean and return to touchdown in about 35 to 40 minutes.

If they would have Mig 29's and Su 27's at Groom Lake they would just have to be novelties. Like having a couple of 1955 Chevy Corvettes among some 2009 Corvettes.

The first "acquired" Migs after the Soviet Union collapsed were reversed engineered at other locations rather than Groom Lake. Red Chinese engineers were brought here in the U.S. expenses paid and put up in the best lodging around some regular R&D Air Force bases and the Migs were flown at night. Any press rumors were completely denied - most especially the Red Chinese being here and squired around wearing business suits.

Think we did upgrade our fighter aircraft ejection seats - the Russian seats were better at the time.

The above is now in the public domain and happened in the past.