Whereas today's airliners can soar as high as 45, feet , in the mids airlines flew at altitudes between 10, and 20, feet. Known military aircraft could get to 40, feet, and some believed manned flight couldn't go any higher than that. The U-2, flying at altitudes in excess of 60, feet, would've looked completely alien.
Naturally, Air Force officials knew the majority of these unexplained sightings were U-2 tests, but they were not allowed to reveal these details to the public. So, "natural phenomena" or "high-altitude weather research" became go-to explanations for UFO sightings, including in when Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down over Russia.
What's also interesting about the most recent report is that it confirms Area 51's existence. While the version does have significant redactions when referencing the name and location of the U-2 test site, the nearly un-redacted version from reveals much more, including multiple references to Area 51, Groom Lake, and even a map of the area.
U-2 operations halted in the late s, but other top secret military aircrafts continued tests at Area You got folks claiming it's extraterrestrial when it's really good old American know-how. And it's still going on today The flights are ongoing. In September , an Air Force Lt. It seems he was most likely flying a foreign jet obtained by the United States. Even so, the alien conspiracies gained ground in when Bob Lazar claimed in an interview on Las Vegas local news that he'd seen aliens and had helped to reverse-engineer alien spacecrafts while working at the base.
Many have disregarded this as fiction and are even offended at the notion, including Merlin, who has spent years talking with former Area 51 engineers and employees angered by all the fuss about E.
Today, Area 51 is still very much in use. According to Google Earth , new construction and expansions are continuously happening. On most early mornings, eagle-eyed visitors can spot strange lights in the sky moving up and down.
No, it's not a UFO. It's actually the semi-secret contract commuter airline using the call-sign "Janet" that transports workers from Las Vegas's McCarran Airport to the base. As for what's happening these days in America's most secretive military base, few know for sure. Merlin has some educated guesses, including improved stealth technology, advanced weapons, electronic warfare systems and, in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles.
Dozens of young, good-looking, often costumed people were running around filming each other with semi-professional video rigs. Or at least film themselves talking about it. Joining them was a ragged army of hundreds of stoners, UFO buffs, punk bands, rubberneckers, European tourists, people with way too much time on their hands, and meme-lords in Pepe the Frog costumes — all here because of the Internet, the ironic and the earnest alike, for a party at the end of the earth. T hree months earlier, on 20 June , the podcaster Joe Rogan released an interview with Bob Lazar.
Lazar is a cult figure in UFO circles; he claims to have studied flying saucers at Area 51, the classified air force base in Nevada where the US government is rumored — by some — to make secret contact with extraterrestrial beings.
One of those listeners was Matty Roberts, a college student, anime enthusiast and video gamer in Bakersfield, California. Things snowballed. Within hours, the page had thousands of RSVPs. Within days it had more than a million. The air force warned that things would end badly for anyone attempting a raid. So he came up with a brilliant pivot: why not channel this momentum into a Burning Man-style music festival in the desert?
Then came the first schism. Scornful of the internet interlopers, the Alien Research Center in nearby Hiko, Nevada, decided to host its own Area 51 event the same weekend — for serious ufologists.
Roberts and West pressed on. But the town of Rachel population: 54 lacked the infrastructure to handle thousands of conspiracy theorists and gawkers descending on rural Nevada. The local authorities feared potential calamity: people dying of dehydration in the desert, angry landowners, madmen with guns. On 10 September, nine days before the event, Roberts backed out. He accused West of being insufficiently prepared for the coming flood.
Roberts urged people to go there instead. West refused to cancel the concert in the desert. Alienstock would happen, she said, whether anyone liked it or not. Now there were three rival events all happening on the same weekend — one in Las Vegas, another in Rachel and a third in Hiko.
No one had any idea how many people were coming. I came equipped with a duffel bag of Hawaiian shirts and a case of vape cartridges, which I hoped to use as currency in the event of civilizational collapse in the desert. But the desert would wait. Why was it built? Rachel and Hiko are the two closest towns to the Area 51 base. What goes on there today? Area 51 "declassified" in U-2 spy plane history The Area 51 joke that became a 'possible disaster Why Moon landing conspiracy theories aren't true.
Are there aliens and flying saucers at Area 51? Area 51 has featured in a number of sci-fi shows, such as the X-Files. Area 51 in numbers Year facility opened Year its existence was first officially acknowledged 2. What happens if people 'storm' Area The F Stealth fighter made its maiden flight from Area 51 in Related Topics. The back gate is seen at the top-secret military installation at the Nevada Test and Training Range known as Area 51 on July 22, near Rachel, Nevada.
Today it is used as an open training range for the US Air Force. According to the CIA, the name Area 51 comes from its map designation.
It was also previously referred to as "Paradise Ranch" in order to make the facility sound more attractive to those that would be working there.
Read More. It is located more than miles northwest of Las Vegas. It is restricted to the public and has armed guards patrolling the perimeter.
It's also impossible to enter the airspace above without permission from air traffic control. Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts who believe it to be the location where the US government stores and hides alien bodies and UFOs. One popular UFO conspiracy is that in in Roswell, New Mexico , remains from a flying saucer that supposedly crashed were brought to Area 51 for reverse engineering experiments in order to replicate the extraterrestrial spacecraft.
April 12, - CIA officer Richard Bissell, who is overseeing the development of the U-2 plane, first sees the site that would become known as Area 51 while on an "aerial scouting mission.
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