BACKGROUND NOTES

Groom Lake / Nellis

Groom Dry Lake, with its US Air Force base, is within what has become popularly known as "Area 51". This is a large area of government land about 95 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada. It adjoins the Nevada Test Site and the Nellis Air Force Range. The name "Area 51" supposedly came from a designation appearing on an old map of the Nevada Test Site. The lake bed centre is at 115°47'30"W and 37°16'30"N.

Development programs for the U-2, A-12, SR-71 and F-117 aircraft were all carried out here under tight secrecy. Indeed, the Groom Dry Lake facility was intially built in the early 1950s for development of the U-2.

Restricted public access meant that the first image of Groom Lake seen by Americans was one taken by a Russian satellite.

However, Groom's existence had been revealed as far back as 3 May, 1956, when NACA (now NASA) published photographs of the U-2, describing it as "a weather research aircraft which has been flying from Watertown Strip in southern Nevada" (Watertown being the formal name given the Groom Lake base).

The land was finally officially withdrawn from public use in June 1958. At that time it was identified as "Area 51" (all neighbouring areas were similarly numbered) with that label being officially dropped in the late 1970s.

With development of the high-performance Lockheed A-12 from 1959, the restricted airspace around Groom was extended. The word was put out that the facility was now used for radar testing; partially true, as a radar test facility had been built to test the A-12's radar profile.

By the mid-1970s, the USAF's 6513rd Test Squadron was operating Soviet combat aircraft out of the lakebed strip. The Red Flag exercises, out of nearby Nellis AFB, used a good part of the area. Soviet radars and SAMs dotted the hills and Aggressor Squadron F-5s imitated Soviet fighters. Red Flag crews referred to Groom as "Red Square". As later, more exotic projects developed - Have Blue, Tacit Blue, and the F-117 and B-2 - the title became "Dreamland".

The immense secrecy and visible security around the "Area 51" complex - which in fact consists of several distinct facilities - has attracted aviation enthusiasts, as well as UFO and conspiracy buffs, some of whom speak of "back engineering of alien technology" in depths below "Area 51", as if secret aircraft development, Red Flag exercises and live firing were not enough of a security and safety reason to keep curious folk at a distance.

Notable as a source of "Area 51" data and gossip has been the now defunct "Groom Lake Desert Rat", once electronically published from the small town of Rachel, Nev. Its content managed to walk a narrow line between being a sensible social watchdog, while at the same time appealing to the UFO/conspiracy audience. It therefore continues to circulate on the Net, apparently at no fixed address, but not hard to find if searched for by name.

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