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Area 51 'declassified' in U-2 spy plane history
- octo_t 13y agoYou mean it WASNT aliens faints in surprise
- showerst 13y agoIn 1994 there was a court case where some workers who were poisoned working at Groom Lake sued the gov't. [1] Apparently at one point a government lawyer, in using the state secrets privilege to deny examination of relevant witnesses referred to "The alleged facility, if it indeed exists", at which point the opposing council offered to load up his car and drive everyone to the damn base =). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51#Environmental_lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51#Environmental_lawsuit
- pcunite 13y agoExcellent ... now show us "Area 50" ...
- olympus 13y agoIt was just named that because it fell under square #51 on a map. It was totally arbitrary way to name it and doesn't imply the existance of Areas 0-51.
- hueyp 13y agoSome of them do. The Nevada Test Site includes several. http://m.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/15521786/lightbox/ http://m.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/15521786/lightbox/ That road heading northeast past sedan crater leads to Area 51.
- cruise02 13y agoI'd be more interested in Area 52.
- anonymfus 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonopah_Test_Range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonopah_Test_Range ?
- marklabedz 13y agoTonopah Test Range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonopah_Test_Range https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonopah_Test_Range
- willvarfar 13y agoI'm reading a fun book at the moment about the true story of how the USAF had a squadron of MIGs for aggressor training there too...
- olympus 13y agoRed Eagles? I'll second the "fun book" comment. I'd recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed a Tom Clancy novel.
- willvarfar 13y agoOn the subject of fun nonfiction, I have to recommend "blind man's bluff"; its the best of the genre, IMO. Any others? Also, broader away from recent military skunk works is anything by Simon Singh, particularly The Code Book and Fermet's Last Theorum.
- cdjk 13y agoIt looks like there are two books with similar titles - which one are you reading? Blind Man's Bluff is good, as another poster suggests. Another fun one is "The theory that would not die," about the history of Bayes rule.
- willvarfar 13y agoI'm reading the one by Steve Davies. Its not really written as a page turner but the content makes it so!
- angelohuang 13y agoDoes it mean we are alone?
- dm2 13y agoIn our solar system? Yes, it's just 7 billion of us, some animals, and one green/blue rock. In our galaxy? Maybe. There is definitely potential for there to be alien life, it's just a long way away. Then there is always the possibility that we are the first intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. In the universe? Odds are that there are millions of other intelligent civilizations. The speed of light and the amount of distance to cover is a big reason why they probably haven't visited us and we will probably never visit them.
- tymekpavel 13y agoIn our solar system? We don't know. In our galaxy? We don't know. In the universe? We don't know.
- loqi 13y agoIndeed. I don't see how we can even get a reasonable bound on the exponent of P(alien life). That kind of uncertainty behaves counter-intuitively - multiplying it by the size of the universe leaves it essentially unchanged.
- richadams 13y agoReminds me of BT Tower in London, built in the 60s. Despite being quite a tall and recognisable structure that obviously exists, it was considered an official secret and didn't appear on any maps until the mid-90s.
- AsymetricCom 13y agoNot really much of a secret anymore, for a plane that has had parts in Cuban museums for the last 50 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Anderson#Wreckage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Anderson#Wreckage
- brymaster 13y agoStories like this always remind me that large groups of people can work on unknown projects without the public finding out. 'Project Oxcart' known as the A-12 was the first stealth plane built in Burbank, CA by thousands at Locheed and kept in secrecy - then later transported to A51/Groom Lake. It was the predecessor to the Blackbird.
- lostlogin 13y agoBletchley Park. www.bletchleypark.org.uk
- jlgreco 13y ago> It was the successor to the Blackbird. Predecessor actually. It came first.
- brymaster 13y agoWhoops, got my noun and tenses mixed up. Updated, Thanks!
- derleth 13y agoExcept, governmental delusion aside, the existence of Area 51 was not actually secret. Everyone knew the place was there, and the most reasonable explanation for it (spy planes) turned out to be correct. Also, A only implies B when there is some actual connection between A and B.
- brymaster 13y agoExcept, I didn't mean A51, I meant the Locheed stealth plane programs.
- moens 13y agolol... that was funny. "...large groups of people can work on unknown projects without the public finding out" I completely agree. I have heard the opposite line of reasoning used to "refute" actual evidence many too many times.
- simgidacav 13y agoSo the Independence Day movie was lying? I'm so disappointed!
- gonzo 13y agoI drilled several of the water wells at Area 51 and TTR. I guess I can talk about it now. :-)
- vex 13y agoTell us about it!