Area 51

1. Area 51's True Origin: Founded by the Atomic Energy Commission, Not CIA/USAF.

Never before disclosed is the fact that Area 51’s first customer was not the CIA but the Atomic Energy Commission.

Secretive beginnings. Area 51, located in the remote Nevada desert, was established in 1951, four years before the CIA arrived with the U-2 spy plane project. Its initial purpose was to serve the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), leveraging the AEC's unique, legally separate system of secrecy established by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This allowed for projects to be "born classified," hidden even from the President.

Ideal location. The site, centered around the Groom Lake dry lake bed, was chosen for its isolation within the vast Nevada Test and Training Range, adjacent to the Nevada Test Site. This placement outside the formal NTS boundaries provided a gray area of control, perfect for clandestine operations away from standard Department of Defense oversight. The dry lake offered a natural runway, and surrounding mountains provided concealment.

Controversial research. The AEC used Area 51 for radical and controversial research, development, and engineering projects entirely without oversight or ethical controls. Moving these programs to an agency not typically associated with aircraft or pilot projects (the AEC's domain was nuclear bombs) made them harder to find, contributing to Area 51's enduring riddle.

2. The Roswell Incident's Shocking Reality: Not Aliens, But Human Experiments.

Most alarming was a fact kept secret until now—inside the disc, there was a very earthly hallmark: Russian writing.

A crashed craft. In July 1947, something crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. It was not a weather balloon, as the government claimed, but a flying disc unlike any known aircraft, lacking wings or a tail and featuring a dome on top. Crucially, it bore Russian writing stamped inside, indicating Soviet origin.

Humanoid bodies. Alongside the crashed craft, responders found bodies. These were not extraterrestrial aliens but human guinea pigs, unusually small, under five feet tall, with disproportionately large heads and abnormally shaped, oversize eyes. Two were found comatose but alive.

Stalin's propaganda. The craft and its occupants were part of a black propaganda hoax orchestrated by Joseph Stalin. The goal was for the "alien" occupants to emerge and cause mass panic in the U.S., overwhelming radar systems and demonstrating Stalin's ability to manipulate American public perception, much like the 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

3. Nazi Scientists' Dark Role: Mengele, Paperclip, and Human Guinea Pigs.

They were told that the children were rumored to have been kidnapped by Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi madman who, at Auschwitz and elsewhere, was known to have performed unspeakable experimental surgical procedures mostly on children, dwarfs, and twins.

Mengele's bargain. The grotesque appearance of the child-size aviators from the Roswell crash was allegedly the result of experiments by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Rumor told to engineers was that Mengele made a deal with Stalin to continue his eugenics work in the Soviet Union in exchange for creating a crew of "alien-looking" aviators for Stalin's hoax.

Paperclip's dark side. The U.S. government's postwar recruitment of Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip, while justified as necessary to gain technological advantage over the Soviets, involved overlooking horrific war crimes. Some recruited scientists had conducted barbaric human experiments, including aviation medicine tests on concentration camp prisoners.

Postwar experiments. The EG&G engineer revealed that, starting in 1951 at the S-4 facility near Area 51, engineers were tasked by Vannevar Bush and the AEC with working on the Roswell crash remains and the human aviators. This included maintaining the comatose survivors and conducting further experiments on handicapped children and prisoners, violating the Nuremberg Code in the name of scientific advancement and national security.

4. The Birth of Aerial Espionage: U-2, CIA vs. USAF, and UFO Cover.

President Eisenhower put the CIA in charge of the overhead reconnaissance because, as he later wrote, the aerial reconnaissance program needed to be handled in an “unconventional way.”

CIA takes over. In 1955, the CIA, led by Richard Bissell, selected Groom Lake (Area 51) as the test site for the U-2 spy plane. Eisenhower chose the CIA over the Air Force for plausible deniability, as a civilian-run program could be denied if a plane was shot down, unlike a military operation.

UFO sightings. The U-2's high altitude (70,000 feet) and unusual appearance (long, thin wings) led to numerous UFO sightings by commercial pilots and the public. These sightings, often of the silver U-2 reflecting sunlight, were frequently mistaken for flying saucers.

Cover story. The CIA and Air Force collaborated on a public relations campaign to dismiss UFO reports, attributing them to natural phenomena or hoaxes, while secretly tracking sightings and correlating them with U-2 flights. This deliberate obfuscation, intended to protect the U-2 program's secrecy, inadvertently fueled public belief in a government UFO cover-up.

5. Oxcart: Mach 3 Stealth, Area 51's Boom, and Agency Rivalry.

The aircraft was going to be five times faster than the U-2 and would fly a full three miles higher than the U-2.

Supersonic successor. Following the U-2, the CIA commissioned Lockheed's Skunk Works to develop the A-12 Oxcart, a Mach 3 (2,200 mph) spy plane designed to fly above 90,000 feet. This required significant expansion of Area 51, including a longer runway, new hangars, and increased personnel, transforming it into a boomtown.

Stealth features. The Oxcart incorporated early stealth technology, including radar-absorbing materials and a unique shape designed to reduce its radar cross-section. Testing these features, including on a full-scale mock-up on a pole, was a major focus at Area 51.

Agency rivalry. The Oxcart program intensified the rivalry between the CIA and the Air Force. The Air Force, led by General Curtis LeMay, sought control of the supersonic spy plane, eventually developing its own version, the SR-71 Blackbird, leading to a power struggle over Area 51 and aerial reconnaissance assets.

6. Nuclear Testing's Shadow: Contamination, Accidents, and Secrecy.

So radiated was the land at Jackass Flats after the Phoebus accident, even HAZMAT cleanup crews in full protective gear could not enter the area for six weeks.

Proximity to NTS. Area 51 sits adjacent to the Nevada Test Site (NTS), where hundreds of nuclear bombs were tested, initially aboveground and later underground. These tests, particularly large ones like the 74-kiloton Hood bomb in 1957, significantly impacted Area 51, causing structural damage and forcing evacuations.

Dirty bomb tests. The AEC conducted secret "safety tests" near Area 51, including Project 57 in 1957, which simulated a nuclear weapon crash by dispersing plutonium. This contaminated Area 13, adjacent to Groom Lake, with long-lasting radioactivity, the cleanup of which was neglected for decades.

Nuclear rocket disasters. At Area 25 (Jackass Flats) on the NTS, the NERVA nuclear rocket program, aimed at Mars travel, involved testing nuclear reactors. Accidents, including a planned explosion (Kiwi) and an unplanned meltdown (Phoebus), released significant radiation, contaminating the area and highlighting the dangers of secret nuclear projects.

7. Stealth Technology's Genesis: Radar Evasion and Area 51 Testing.

What Lovick and his team would soon discover was that stealth could be achieved if it was designed as a feature in the early drawing boards.

Early attempts. Initial efforts to make the U-2 stealthy by adding radar-absorbing paint failed, proving that stealth needed to be integral to aircraft design. This led Lockheed physicist Edward Lovick and his team to pioneer radar evasion techniques for the A-12 Oxcart.

Area 51 testing. Area 51 became the crucial testbed for stealth technology. Full-scale mock-ups and later the actual A-12 were tested on a radar pole to measure their radar cross-section. This iterative process, guided by radar data, refined the aircraft's shape and materials to minimize radar detection.

F-117 Nighthawk. The lessons learned from Oxcart stealth development, combined with advancements in computing, led to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber. Tested at Area 51 and the adjacent Area 52 (Tonopah Test Range), the F-117 revolutionized aerial warfare by making aircraft nearly invisible to radar.

8. Reverse Engineering the Enemy: MiGs, Top Gun, and Captured Tech.

With an MiG now in their possession, the Israelis set to work understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft in flight.

Captured MiG-21. In 1966, an Iraqi pilot defected to Israel with a Soviet-made MiG-21 fighter jet. After Israel exploited the aircraft's intelligence value, it was secretly transferred to Area 51 for the U.S. to reverse engineer and understand its capabilities.

Have Doughnut. At Area 51, EG&G engineers, including T. D. Barnes, meticulously disassembled and studied the MiG-21 in a program code-named Have Doughnut. This technical analysis revealed the MiG's design secrets and performance characteristics.

Tactical exploitation. The MiG was then flown in mock air battles against U.S. fighter jets over Groom Lake. This tactical testing, also part of Have Doughnut, taught American pilots how to defeat the MiG in combat, directly contributing to the development of the Navy's Top Gun fighter pilot school and improving U.S. air-to-air combat ratios in Vietnam.

9. The Rise of Drones: Pilotless Warfare and Area 51 Development.

The idea behind using remotely piloted vehicles in warfare is a simple one—keep the human out of harm’s way—but the drone’s first application was for pleasure.

Early concepts. The idea of pilotless aircraft dates back to Nikola Tesla's remote-controlled boat and World War II drone bombers. Early military applications included atomic cloud sampling, deemed too dangerous for human pilots after accidents.

CIA's focus. Following U-2 shoot-downs, particularly the capture of Black Cat pilots over China, the CIA prioritized drone development at Area 51. Projects like Tagboard (Mach 3 stealth drone) and Aquiline (disguised reconnaissance drone) aimed to perform "dull, dirty, and dangerous" missions without risking pilots.

War on Terror. Drones, tested and refined at Area 51 and Area 52 for decades, became central to the war on terror. The weaponized Predator and Reaper drones, capable of reconnaissance and targeted assassination, transformed aerial warfare and solidified the Air Force and CIA's renewed partnership in overhead operations.

10. The Ultimate Cover-Up: S-4, Human Experiments, and AEC's Secrets.

“Because we were doing the same thing,” he said. “They wanted to push science. They wanted to see how far they could go.”

S-4 facility. The Roswell crash remains, including the craft and the human aviators, were moved from Wright-Patterson AFB to a secret facility near Area 51, code-named S-4, in 1951. This facility predated the CIA's arrival at Groom Lake and was controlled by the AEC and Vannevar Bush.

Human experimentation. At S-4, EG&G engineers were tasked with reverse engineering the craft and studying the human aviators. The engineer revealed that this involved medical experiments on handicapped children and prisoners, authorized by Vannevar Bush and the AEC, in violation of the Nuremberg Code.

AEC's secrecy. The AEC's unique classification system, allowing documents to be "born classified" and hidden even from the President (as seen with President Clinton's investigation), enabled the cover-up of these horrific experiments and the true origins of Area 51, perpetuating myths about aliens and UFOs to distract from the darker reality.

Last updated: June 14, 2025