Selects: How Area 51 Works

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• The modern mystique surrounding Area 51, particularly its association with aliens and UFOs, largely originated from a single 1989 local news interview with Bob Lazar, despite the base's decades of prior secret operations.  Copied to clipboard!
• Area 51 was established on a dry salt lake bed (Groom Lake) in the Nevada Test Site area, initially by the CIA for the super-secret development of the U-2 spy plane (Project Aquatone) under Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works team.  Copied to clipboard!
• The government maintained extreme secrecy at Area 51, exemplified by the Mosaic Theory (where any piece of information could reveal the whole picture) and the official denial of the base's existence, even in court, which complicated environmental lawsuits filed by sick workers.  Copied to clipboard!

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Area 51 Location and Context

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(00:01:10)

• Key Takeaway: Area 51 is geographically located less than 100 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada, and is part of a larger 600 square mile restricted test range.
• Summary: Area 51 is situated in Southern Nevada, near Las Vegas, and is part of a massive restricted airspace encompassing about 600 square miles. This larger area includes the Nevada Test Site, where the Atomic Energy Commission conducted nuclear bomb testing for over a decade. The specific installation known as Area 51 is much smaller, estimated to be no more than 60 square miles.

Origins of Area 51 Naming

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(00:05:37)

• Key Takeaway: The designation ‘Area 51’ originated from old bombing range maps where the location was denoted as Area 51, situated between Area 50 and Area 52.
• Summary: Prior to military use, the land was used for silver mining, cattle, and wildlife until 1940 when the government claimed it for bomber training. The area was divided into numbered sections for bombing ranges, leading to the name Area 51. This area was chosen because it was already off-limits to the public and offered natural shielding from view via two mountain ranges.

Skunk Works and U-2 Development

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(00:06:12)

• Key Takeaway: Lockheed engineer Kelly Johnson’s elite team, known as the Skunk Works, developed America’s first jet fighter (P-80 Shooting Star) and subsequently the U-2 spy plane at the remote Nevada site.
• Summary: Following the success of the P-80, Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works team was given unlimited resources to continue rapid development, leading to Project Aquatone: the CIA’s request for a high-altitude spy plane capable of flying above radar. They selected Groom Lake, a hard, dry salt lake bed, for the super-secret development of the U-2, initially calling the site ‘Paradise Ranch’ as a cover.

U-2 Downfall and Project Oxcart

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(00:15:29)

• Key Takeaway: The 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union prompted the government to double down on secrecy by initiating the even more concealed Project Oxcart.
• Summary: The U-2 incident was humiliating for the U.S. after President Eisenhower’s proposal for open airspace was rejected by Khrushchev. In response to the loss of the secret plane, CIA officer Richard Bissell proposed developing an even more secretive aircraft under Project Oxcart. This marked a turning point toward military dumping money into black projects with minimal oversight.

Black Project Costs and SR-71

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(00:20:06)

• Key Takeaway: Operating a ‘black project’ like Oxcart significantly multiplies costs due to enhanced security, background checks, and the inherently cutting-edge nature of the technology being developed.
• Summary: The Oxcart project eventually led to the development of the SR-71 Blackbird, considered one of the coolest planes ever built. The need for better infrastructure in 1962 further cemented the permanence of Area 51 as the testing ground for stealth aircraft like the F-117 Nighthawk.

The Birth of Alien Mythology

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(00:24:13)

• Key Takeaway: The widespread association of Area 51 with aliens and UFOs is relatively recent, beginning around 1989 with the claims made by Bob Lazar.
• Summary: The highway leading to Area 51 has been officially renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway, yet the base operated for decades before aliens became synonymous with it. Bob Lazar, using the pseudonym ‘Dennis,’ claimed on a Las Vegas news broadcast in May 1989 that he was reverse-engineering alien spacecraft at a sub-installation called S4. Lazar’s claims gained traction because some mundane details he shared about base operations later appeared in declassified reports.

Roswell Connection and Conspiracy Theories

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(00:34:50)

• Key Takeaway: The Roswell crash of 1947 is widely, though skeptically, connected to Area 51, despite the two locations being 800 miles apart and the alien crash narrative only emerging in the 1980s.
• Summary: Conspiracy theories suggest alien bodies and technology from the 1947 Roswell incident were transported to Area 51 for study, though skeptics note the base was not yet operational for such purposes then. Other theories include Area 51 being the site where the moon landing was faked, or the underground headquarters for a human-alien hybrid one-world government (Majestic 12).

Current Security and Worker Transport

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(00:44:00)

• Key Takeaway: Area 51 maintains intense surveillance, including listening devices, and civilian workers with top security clearance commute daily via unmarked white 737 jets known as the ‘Janet jets.’
• Summary: Visitors approaching the perimeter face warning signs authorizing deadly force, though most trespassers are simply fined by local police. Workers commute from Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport on unmarked white jets with a red stripe, flying under the call sign ‘Janet,’ possibly named after Richard A. Sampson’s wife. Satellite imagery now reveals the base is visibly growing, making total concealment impossible.

Environmental Lawsuits and Mosaic Theory

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(00:47:29)

• Key Takeaway: The government’s defense in lawsuits regarding worker illnesses was based on the Mosaic Theory, which argued that revealing details about chemicals or decommissioned equipment would compromise national security.
• Summary: In the mid-1990s, workers sued the government over severe illnesses caused by the dumping and burning of hazardous waste and classified materials in trenches upwind of the installation. The government successfully argued that revealing the composition of these materials was impossible because of the Mosaic Theory, which posits that any small piece of information could reveal the base’s overall classified activities.