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Area 51

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This article is about the U.S. Air Force installation in Nevada. For other uses, see Area 51 (disambiguation).

Area 51
A satellite image of Area 51 from 2000 shows dry Groom Lake just northeast of the site.
IATA: none – ICAO: KXTA
Summary
Airport type		Military
Owner		U.S. Federal Government
Operator		United States Air Force
Location		Southern Nevada, U.S.
Elevation AMSL		4,462 ft / 1,360 m
Coordinates		37°14′06″N 115°48′40″WCoordinates: 37°14′06″N 115°48′40″W
Map
KXTA Location of Area 51 Airfield

[show]Map of all coordinates from Google Map of up to 200 coordinates from Bing

Area 51, also officially known as Groom Lake^[1] or Homey Airport^[2] (ICAO:KXTA), is a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. According to theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA), the correct names for the Area 51 facility are the Nevada Test and Training Range and Groom Lake,^[3] though the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam war.^[4] Other names used for the facility include Dreamland,^[5] and nicknames Paradise Ranch,^[6]Home Base, Watertown, and Groom Lake.^[7] The area around the field is referred to as (R-4808N).^[8]

It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield. The base's current primary purpose is publicly unknown; however, based on historical evidence, it most likely supports development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.^[9] The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component tounidentified flying object (UFO) folklore.^[10][11] Although the base has never been declared a secret base, all research and occurrings in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).^[10] In July 2013, following a FOIA request filed in 2005, the Central Intelligence Agency publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time by declassifying documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51.^[12]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Geography
  • 1.1 Area 51
  • 1.2 Groom Lake
• 2 History
  • 2.1 Groom Lake
  • 2.2 World War II
  • 2.3 U-2 program
  • 2.4 OXCART program
  • 2.5 D-21 Tagboard
  • 2.6 Foreign technology evaluation
  • 2.7 Have Blue/F-117 program
  • 2.8 Later operations
• 3 U.S. government's positions on Area 51
• 4 Security and operations
• 5 Civil Aviation identification
• 6 Environmental lawsuit
• 7 1974 Skylab photography
  • 7.1 Other satellite imagery
• 8 UFO and other conspiracy theories
• 9 In popular culture
• 10 See also
• 11 References
• 12 External links

Geography

Area 51

Map showing Area 51, NAFR, and the NTS

The original rectangular base of 6 by 10 miles (9.7 by 16.1 km) is now part of the so-called "Groom box", a rectangular area measuring 23 by 25 miles (37 by 40 km), of restricted airspace. The area is connected to the internal Nevada Test Site (NTS) road network, with paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to Yucca Flat. Leading northeast from the lake, the wide and well-maintained Groom Lake Road runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. The road formerly led to mines in the Groom basin, but has been improved since their closure. Its winding course runs past a security checkpoint, but the restricted area around the base extends further east. After leaving the restricted area, Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches, before converging with State Route 375, the "Extraterrestrial Highway",^[13] south ofRachel.

Area 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flat region of the Nevada Test Site, the location of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests conducted by the United States Department of Energy at NTS.^[14][15][16] The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is 44 miles (71 km) southwest of Groom Lake.

Groom Lake

Nevada Test Range topographic chart centered on Groom Lake

Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (KXTA) on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at 4,409 ft (1,344 m)^[17] elevation is approximately 3.7 miles (6.0 km) from north to south and 3 miles (4.8 km) from east to west at its widest point. Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin, the lake is 25 mi (40 km) south of Rachel, Nevada.

History

The origin of the Area 51 name is unclear. The most accepted comes from a grid numbering system of the area by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC); while Area 51 isn't part of this system it is adjacent to Area 15. Another explanation is that 51 was used because it was unlikely that the AEC would use the number.^[18]

Groom Lake

Main article: Silver mining in Nevada

Lead and silver were discovered in the southern part of the Groom Range in 1864,^[19] and the English Groome Lead Mines Limited company financed the Conception Mines in the 1870s, giving the district its name (nearby mines included Maria, Willow and White Lake).^[20] The interests in Groom were acquired by J. B. Osborne and partners and patented in 1876, and his son acquired the interests in the 1890s.^[20] Claims were incorporated as two 1916 companies with mining continuing until 1918 and resuming after World War II until the early 1950s.^[20]

World War II

The airfield on the Groom Lake site began service in 1942 as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field,^[21] and consisted of two dirt 5000' runways aligned NE/SW, NW/SE 37°16′35″N 115°45′20″W. The airfield may have been used for bombing and artillery practice; bomb craters are still visible in the vicinity.^[22]

U-2 program

Main article: Lockheed U-2

Watertown ("The Ranch") with U-2 flight line

The Groom Lake test facility was established by the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) for Project Aquatone, the development of the Lockheed U-2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft in April 1955.

As part of the project, the director, Richard M. Bissell, Jr., understood that, given the extreme secrecy enveloping the project, the flight test and pilot training programs could not be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base or Lockheed's Palmdale facility. A search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 was conducted under the same extreme security as the rest of the project.^[23]

He notified Lockheed, who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake. According to Lockheed's U-2 designer Kelly Johnson:^[23]

... We flew over it and within thirty seconds, you knew that was the place ... it was right by a dry lake. Man alive, we looked at that lake, and we all looked at each other. It was another Edwards, so we wheeled around, landed on that lake, taxied up to one end of it. It was a perfect natural landing field ... as smooth as a billiard table without anything being done to it". Johnson used a compass to lay out the direction of the first runway. The place was called "Groom Lake".

The lakebed made an ideal strip from which they could test aircraft, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, protected the test site from visitors.^[24] The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land, designated "Area 51" on the map, and add it to the Nevada Test Site.^[25]:56–57

Johnson named the area "Paradise Ranch" to encourage workers to move to a place that the CIA's official history of the U-2 project would later describe as "the new facility in the middle of nowhere"; the name became shortened to "the Ranch".^[25]:57On 4 May 1955, a survey team arrived at Groom Lake and laid out a 5,000-foot (1,500 m), north-south runway on the southwest corner of the lakebed and designated a site for a base support facility. "The Ranch", also known as Site II, initially consisted of little more than a few shelters, workshops and trailer homes in which to house its small team.^[24] In a little over three months, the base consisted of a single, paved runway, three hangars, a control tower, and rudimentary accommodations for test personnel. The base's few amenities included a movie theatre and volleyball court. Additionally, there was a mess hall, several water wells, and fuel storage tanks. By July 1955, CIA, Air Force, and Lockheed personnel began arriving. The Ranch received its first U-2 delivery on 24 July 1955 from Burbank on a C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane, accompanied by Lockheed technicians on a Douglas DC-3.^[24] Regular Military Air Transport Service flights were set up between Area 51 and Lockheed's Burbank, California offices. To preserve secrecy, personnel flew to Nevada on Monday mornings and returned to California on Friday evenings.^[25]:72

In Nov 1959 an "A-12 mock-up undergoes RCS testing at Groom Lake".^[26]

The 2nd YF-12A interceptor prototype at Groom Lake, Nevada (USAF Photograph)

The first test flight of Lockheed YF-12A 60-6934 occurred on 7 August 1963 at Groom Lake.

OXCART program

For testing of a similar aircraft with 1st flight at the Palmdale, California, Lockheed facility in December 1964, followed by Edwards AFB flights (4200 SRW operations began at Beale AFB on 7 January 1966), see SR-71 Blackbird.

Project OXCART established in August 1959 for "antiradar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs [and] all later work on the" Lockheed A-12^[27] included testing at Groom Lake, which before improvements for OXCART had inadequate facilities: buildings for only 150 people, a 5,000 ft (1,500 m) asphalt runway, and limited fuel, hangar, and shop space.^[23] Selected for its seclusion and climate, Groom Lake had received a new official name "Area 51"^{[23][verification needed]} when A-12 test facility construction began in September 1960, including a new 8,500 ft (2,600 m) runway to replace the existing runway (completed by 15 November 1960 with "expansion joints parallel to the direction of aircraft roll" to limit vibration.)^[28]

Four years of "Project 51" construction began on 1 October 1960 by Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECo) with double-shift construction schedules. The contractor upgraded base facilities and built a new 10,000 ft (3,000 m) runway (14/32) diagonally across the southwest corner of the lakebed. An Archimedes curve approximately two miles across was marked on the dry lake so that an A-12 pilot approaching the end of the overrun could abort to the playainstead of plunging the aircraft into the sagebrush. Area 51 pilots called it "The Hook". For crosswind landings two unpaved airstrips (runways 9/27 and 03/21) were marked on the dry lakebed.^[29]

By August 1961, construction of the essential facilities was completed (3 surplusNavy hangars were erected on the base's north side—hangars 4, 5, and 6.) A fourth, Hangar 7, was new construction. The original U-2 hangars were converted to maintenance and machine shops. Facilities in the main cantonment area included workshops and buildings for storage and administration, a commissary, control tower, fire station, and housing. The Navy also contributed more than 130 surplus Babbitt duplex housing units for long-term occupancy facilities. Older buildings were repaired, and additional facilities were constructed as necessary. A reservoir pond, surrounded by trees, served as a recreational area one mile north of the base. Other recreational facilities included a gymnasium, movie theatre, and a baseball diamond.^[29] A permanent aircraft fuel tank farm was constructed by early 1962 for the special JP-7 fuel required by the A-12. Seven tanks were constructed, with a total capacity of 1,320,000 gallons.

For the arrival of OXCART; security was enhanced and the small civilian mine^[specify] in the Groom basin was closed. In January 1962, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Groom Lake. The lakebed became the center of a 600-square-mile addition to restricted area R-4808N.^[29]

The CIA facility received eight USAF F-101 Voodoos for training, two T-33 Shooting Star trainers for proficiency flying, a C-130 Hercules for cargo transport, a U-3A for administrative purposes, a helicopter for search and rescue, and a Cessna 180for liaison use; and Lockheed provided an F-104 Starfighter for use as a chase plane.^[29]

The first A-12 test aircraft was covertly trucked from Burbank on 26 February 1962, arrived at Groom Lake on 28 February,^[26] was assembled, and made its first flight 26 April 1962 when the base had over 1,000 personnel. Initially, all not connected with a test were herded into the mess hall before each takeoff. This was soon dropped as it disrupted activities and was impractical with the large number of flights.^[23] The closed airspace above Groom Lake was within the Nellis Air Force Range airspace, and pilots saw the A-12 20-30 times (at least one signed a secrecy agreement.).^[23]

Groom was also the site of the 1st Lockheed D-21 drone test flight on 22 December 1964 (not launched until 5 March 1966).^[26] By the end of 1963, nine A-12s were at Area 51, assigned to the CIA operated "1129th Special Activities Squadron".^[30]

Although it was decided^[who?] on 10 January 1967 to phase out the CIA A-12 program, A-12s at Groom Lake occasionally deployed to Kadena AB, Okinawa, for Project Black Shield in 1967^[26] (the 9 A-12s were stored at Palmdale in June 1968 and the 1129th SAS was inactivated.)^[30]

D-21 Tagboard

Main article: Lockheed D-21

The D-21 mounted on the back of the M-21. Note the intake cover on the drone, which was used on early flights.

Following the loss of Gary Powers' U-2 over the Soviet Union, there were several discussions about using the A-12 OXCART as an unpiloted drone aircraft. Although Kelly Johnson had come to support the idea of drone reconnaissance, he opposed the development of an A-12 drone, contending that the aircraft was too large and complex for such a conversion. However, the Air Force agreed to fund the study of a high-speed, high-altitude drone aircraft in October 1962. The air force interest seems to have moved the CIA to take action, the project designated "Q-12". By October 1963, the drone's design had been finalized. At the same time, the Q-12 underwent a name change. To separate it from the other A-12-based projects, it was renamed the "D-21". (The "12" was reversed to "21"). "Tagboard" was the project's code name.^[23]

The first D-21 was completed in the spring of 1964 by Lockheed. After four more months of checkouts and static tests, the aircraft was shipped to Groom Lake and reassembled. It was to be carried by a two-seat derivative of the A-12, designated the "M-21". When the D-21/M-21 reached the launch point, the first step would be to blow off the D-21's inlet and exhaust covers. With the D-21/M-21 at the correct speed and altitude, the LCO would start the ramjet and the other systems of the D-21. With the D-21's systems activated and running, and the launch aircraft at the correct point, the M-21 would begin a slight pushover, the LCO would push a final button, and the D-21 would come off the pylon".^[23]

Difficulties were addressed throughout 1964 and 1965 at Groom Lake with various technical issues. Captive flights showed unforeseen aerodynamic difficulties. By late January 1966, more than a year after the first captive flight, everything seemed ready. The first D-21 launch was made on 5 March 1966 with a successful flight, with the D-21 flying 120 miles with limited fuel. A second D-12 flight was successful in April 1966 with the drone flying 1,200 miles, reaching Mach 3.3 and 90,000 feet. An accident on 30 July 1966 with a fully fueled D-21, on a planned checkout flight suffered from a non-start of the drone after its separation, causing it to collide with the M-21 launch aircraft. The two crewmen ejected and landed in the ocean 150 miles offshore. One crew member was picked up by a helicopter, but the other, having survived the aircraft breakup and ejection, drowned when sea water entered his pressure suit. Kelly Johnson personally cancelled the entire program, having had serious doubts from the start of the feasibility. A number of D-21s had already been produced, and rather than scrapping the whole effort, Johnson again proposed to the Air Force that they be launched from a B-52H bomber.^[23]

By late summer of 1967, the modification work to both the D-21 (now designated D-21B) and the B-52Hs were complete. The test program could now resume. The test missions were flown out of Groom Lake, with the actual launches over the Pacific. The first D-21B to be flown was Article 501, the prototype. The first attempt was made on 28 September 1967, and ended in complete failure. As the B-52 was flying toward the launch point, the D-21B fell off the pylon. The B-52H gave a sharp lurch as the drone fell free. The booster fired and was "quite a sight from the ground". The failure was traced to a stripped nut on the forward right attachment point on the pylon. Several more tests were made, none of which met with success. However, the fact is that the resumptions of D-21 tests took place against a changing reconnaissance background. The A-12 had finally been allowed to deploy, and the SR-71 was soon to replace it. At the same time, new developments in reconnaissance satellite technology were nearing operation. Up to this point, the limited number of satellites available restricted coverage to the Soviet Union. A new generation of reconnaissance satellites could soon cover targets anywhere in the world. The satellites' resolution would be comparable to that of aircraft, but without the slightest political risk. Time was running out for the Tagboard.^[23]

Several more test flights, including two over China, were made from Beale AFB, California, in 1969 and 1970, to varying degrees of success. On 15 July 1971, Kelly Johnson received a wire canceling the D-21B program. The remaining drones were transferred by a C-5A and placed in dead storage. The tooling used to build the D-21Bs was ordered destroyed. Like the A-12 Oxcart, the D-21B Tagboard drones remained a Black airplane, even in retirement. Their existence was not suspected until August 1976, when the first group was placed in storage at the Davis-Monthan AFB Military Storage and Disposition Center. A second group arrived in 1977. They were labeled "GTD-21Bs" (GT stood for ground training).^[23]

Davis-Monthan is an open base, with public tours of the storage area at the time, so the odd-looking drones were soon spotted and photos began appearing in magazines. Speculation about the D-21Bs circulated within aviation circles for years, and it was not until 1982 that details of the Tagboard program were released. However, it was not until 1993 that the B-52/D-21B program was made public. That same year, the surviving D-21Bs were released to museums.^[23]

Foreign technology evaluation

Main article: Tonopah Test Range Airport

HAVE FERRY, the second of twoMiG-17F "Fresco"s loaned to the United States by Israel in 1969.

HAVE DOUGHNUT, (MiG-21F-13) flown by United States Navy and Air Force Systems Command during its 1968 exploitation.

During the Cold War, one of the missions carried out by the United States was the test and evaluation of captured Soviet fighter aircraft. Beginning in the late 1960s, and for several decades, Area 51 played host to an assortment of Soviet-built aircraft. Under the HAVE DOUGHNUT, HAVE DRILL and HAVE FERRY programs, the first MiGs flown in the United States were used to evaluate the aircraft in performance, technical, and operational capabilities, pitting the types against U.S. fighters.^[31]

This was not a new mission, as testing of foreign technology by the USAF began during World War II. After the war, testing of acquired foreign technology was performed by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC, which became very influential during the Korean War), under the direct command of the Air Materiel Control Department. In 1961 ATIC became the Foreign Technology Division (FTD), and was reassigned to Air Force Systems Command. ATIC personnel were sent anywhere where foreign aircraft could be found.

The focus of Air Force Systems Command limited the use of the fighter as a tool with which to train the front line tactical fighter pilots.^[31] Air Force Systems Command recruited its pilots from the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, who were usually graduates from various test pilot schools. Tactical Air Command selected its pilots primarily from the ranks of the Weapons Schoolgraduates.^[31]

In August 1966, Iraqi Air Force fighter pilot Captain Munir Redfa defected, flying his MiG-21 to Israel after being ordered to attack Iraqi Kurd villages with napalm. His aircraft was transferred to the Groom Lake within a month to study. In 1968 the US Air Force and Navy jointly formed a project known as Have Doughnut in which Air Force Systems Command, Tactical Air Command, and the U.S. Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4) flew this acquired Soviet made aircraft in simulated air combat training.^[31] Because U.S. possession of the Soviet MiG-21 was, itself, secret, it was tested at Groom Lake. A joint air force-navy team was assembled for a series of dogfight tests.^[23]

Comparisons between the F-4 and the MiG-21 indicated that, on the surface, they were evenly matched. But air combat was not just about technology. In the final analysis, it was the skill of the man in the cockpit. The Have Doughnut tests showed this most strongly. When the Navy or Air Force pilots flew the MiG-21, the results were a draw; the F-4 would win some fights, the MiG-21 would win others. There were no clear advantages. The problem was not with the planes, but with the pilots flying them. The pilots would not fly either plane to its limits. One of the Navy pilots was Marland W. "Doc" Townsend, then commander of VF-121, the F-4 training squadron at NAS Miramar. He was an engineer and a Korean War veteran and had flown almost every navy aircraft. When he flew against the MiG-21, he would outmaneuver it every time. The Air Force pilots would not go vertical in the MiG-21. The Have Doughnut project officer was Tom Cassidy, a pilot with VX-4, the Navy's Air Development Squadron at Point Mugu. He had been watching as Townsend "waxed" the air force MiG-21 pilots. Cassidy climbed into the MiG-21 and went up against Townsend's F-4. This time the result was far different. Cassidy was willing to fight in the vertical, flying the plane to the point where it was buffeting, just above the stall. Cassidy was able to get on the F-4's tail. After the flight, they realized the MiG-21 turned better than the F-4 at lower speeds. The key was for the F-4 to keep its speed up. What had happened in the sky above Groom Lake was remarkable. An F-4 had defeated the MiG-21; the weakness of the Soviet plane had been found. Further test flights confirmed what was learned. It was also clear that the MiG-21 was a formidable enemy. United States pilots would have to fly much better than they had been to beat it. This would require a special school to teach advanced air combat techniques.^[23]

On 12 August 1968, two Syrian air force lieutenants, Walid Adham and Radfan Rifai, took off in a pair of MiG-17Fs on a training mission. They lost their way and, believing they were over Lebanon, landed at the Beset Landing Field in northern Israel. (One version has it that they were led astray by an Arabic-speaking Israeli).^[23] Prior to the end of 1968 these MiG-17s were transferred from Israeli stocks and added to the Area 51 test fleet. The aircraft were given USAF designations and fake serial numbers so that they could be identified in DOD standard flight logs. As in the earlier program, a small group of Air Force and Navy pilots conducted mock dogfights with the MiG-17s. Selected instructors from the Navy's Top Gun school at NAS Miramar, California, were chosen to fly against the MiGs for familiarization purposes. Very soon, the MiG-17's shortcomings became clear. It had an extremely simple, even crude, control system which lacked the power-boosted controls of American aircraft. The F-4's twin engines were so powerful it could accelerate out of range of the MiG-17's guns in thirty seconds. It was important for the F-4 to keep its distance from the MiG-17. As long as the F-4 was one and a half miles from the MiG-17, it was outside the reach of the Soviet fighter's guns, but the MiG was within reach of the F-4's missiles.^[23]

The data from the Have Doughnut and Have Drill tests were provided to the newly formed Top Gun school at NAS Miramar. By 1970, the Have Drill program was expanded; a few selected fleet F-4 crews were given the chance to fight the MiGs. The most important result of Project Have Drill is that no Navy pilot who flew in the project defeated the MiG-17 Fresco in the first engagement. The Have Drill dogfights were by invitation only. The other pilots based at Nellis Air Force Base were not to know about the U.S.-operated MiGs. To prevent any sightings, the airspace above the Groom Lake range was closed. On aeronautical maps, the exercise area was marked in red ink. The forbidden zone became known as "Red Square".^[23]

During the remainder of the Vietnam War, the Navy kill ratio climbed to 8.33 to 1. In contrast, the Air Force rate improved only slightly to 2.83 to 1. The reason for this difference was Top Gun. The Navy had revitalized its air combat training, while the Air Force had stayed stagnant. Most of the Navy MiG kills were by Top Gun graduates.^{[citation needed]}

In May 1973, Project Have Idea was formed which took over from the older Have Doughnut, Have Ferry and Have Drill projects and the project was transferred to the Tonopah Test Range Airport. At Tonopah testing of foreign technology aircraft continued and expanded throughout the 1970s and 1980s.^[31]

Area 51 also hosted another foreign materiel evaluation program called HAVE GLIB. This involved testing Soviet tracking and missile control radar systems. A complex of actual and replica Soviet-type threat systems began to grow around "Slater Lake", a mile northwest of the main base, along with an acquired Soviet "Barlock" search radar placed at Tonopah Air Force Station. They were arranged to simulate a Soviet-style air defense complex.

The Air Force began funding improvements to Area 51 in 1977 under project SCORE EVENT. In 1979, the CIA transferred jurisdiction of the Area 51 site to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California. Mr. Sam Mitchell, the last CIA commander of Area 51, relinquished command to USAF Lt. Col. Larry D. McClain.

Have Blue/F-117 program

Main articles: Lockheed Have Blue, Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Tonopah Test Range Airport

Underside view of Have Blue

F-117 flying over mountains

The Lockheed Have Blue prototype stealth fighter (a smaller proof-of-concept model of the F-117 Nighthawk) first flew at Groom in December 1977.^[32]

In 1978, the Air Force awarded a full-scale development contract for the F-117 to Lockheed Corporation's Advanced Development Projects. On 17 January 1981 the Lockheed test team at Area 51 accepted delivery of the first full Scale Development (FSD) prototype 79–780, designated YF-117A. At 6:05 am on 18 June 1981 Lockheed Skunk Works test pilot Hal Farley lifted the nose of YF-117A 79–780' off the runway of Area 51.^[33]

Meanwhile, Tactical Air Command (TAC) decided to set up a group-level organization to guide the F-117A to an initial operating capability. That organization became the 4450th Tactical Group (Initially designated "A Unit"), which officially activated on 15 October 1979 at Nellis AFB, Nevada, although the group was physically located at Area 51. The 4450th TG also operated the A-7D Corsair II as a surrogate trainer for the F-117A, and these operations continued until 15 October 1982 under the guise of an avionics test mission.^[33]

Flying squadrons of the 4450th TG were the 4450th Tactical Squadron (Initially designated "I Unit") activated on 11 June 1981, and 4451st Tactical Squadron (Initially designated "P Unit") on 15 January 1983. The 4450th TS, stationed at Area 51, was the first F-117A squadron, while the 4451st TS was stationed at Nellis AFB and was equipped with A-7D Corsair IIs painted in a dark motif, tail coded "LV". Lockheed test pilots put the YF-117 through its early paces. A-7Ds was used for pilot training before any F-117A's had been delivered by Lockheed to Area 51, later the A-7D's were used for F-117A chase testing and other weapon tests at the Nellis Range.

15 October 1982 is important to the program because on that date Major Alton C. Whitley, Jr. became the first USAF 4450th TG pilot to fly the F-117A.^[33]

Although ideal for testing, Area 51 was not a suitable location for an operational group, so a new covert base had to be established for F-117 operations.^[34] Tonopah Test Range Airport was selected for operations of the first USAF F-117 unit, the 4450th Tactical Group (TG).^[35] From October 1979, the Tonopah Airport base was reconstructed and expanded. The 6,000 ft runway was lengthened to 10,000 ft. Taxiways, a concrete apron, a large maintenance hangar, and a propane storage tank were added.^[36]

By early 1982, four more YF-117A airplanes were operating out of the southern end of the base, known as the "Southend" or "Baja Groom Lake". After finding a large scorpion in their offices, the testing team (Designated "R Unit") adopted it as their mascot and dubbed themselves the "Baja Scorpions". Testing of a series of ultra-secret prototypes continued at Area 51 until mid-1981, when testing transitioned to the initial production of F-117 stealth fighters. The F-117s were moved to and from Area 51 by C-5 under the cloak of darkness, in order to maintain program security. This meant that the aircraft had to be defueled, disassembled, cradled, and then loaded aboard the C-5 at night, flown to Lockheed, and unloaded at night before the real work could begin. Of course, this meant that the reverse actions had to occur at the end of the depot work before the aircraft could be reassembled, flight-tested, and redelivered, again under the cover of darkness. In addition to flight-testing, Groom performed radar profiling, F-117 weapons testing, and was the location for training of the first group of frontline USAF F-117 pilots.

Production FSD airframes from Lockheed were shipped to Area 51 for acceptance testing. As the Baja Scorpions tested the aircraft with functional check flights and L.O. verification, the operational airplanes were then transferred to the 4450th TG.^[37]

On 17 May 1982, the move of the 4450th TG from Groom Lake to Tonopah was initiated, with the final components of the move completed in early 1983. Production FSD airframes from Lockheed were shipped to Area 51 for acceptance testing. As the Baja Scorpions tested the aircraft with functional check flights and L.O. verification, the operational airplanes were then transferred to the 4450th TG at Tonopah. ^[37]

The R-Unit was inactivated on 30 May 1989. Upon inactivation, the unit was reformed as Detachment 1, 57th Fighter Weapons Wing (FWW). In 1990 the last F-117A (843) was delivered from Lockheed. After completion of acceptance flights at Area 51 of this last new F-117A aircraft, the flight test squadron continued flight test duties of refurbished aircraft after modifications by Lockheed. In February/March 1992 the test unit moved from Area 51 to the USAF Palmdale Plant 42 and was integrated with the Air Force Systems Command 6510th Test Squadron. Some testing, especially RCS verification and other classified activity was still conducted at Area 51 throughout the operational lifetime of the F-117. The recently inactivated (2008) 410th Flight Test Squadron traces its roots, if not its formal lineage to the 4450th TG R-unit. ^[37]

Later operations

F-22 during a Red Flag exercisewith Groom Lake in the background (March 2013)

Since the F-117 became operational in 1983, operations at Groom Lake have continued. The base and its associated runway system were expanded, including expansion of housing and support facilities.^[1][38] In 1995, the federal government expanded the exclusionary area around the base to include nearby mountains that had hitherto afforded the only decent overlook of the base, prohibiting access to 3,972 acres (16.07 km²) of land formerly administered by the Bureau of Land Management.^[1]

U.S. government's positions on Area 51

A letter from the USAF replying to a query about Area 51

CIA document from 1967 referring to Area 51

The amount of information the United States government has been willing to provide regarding Area 51 has generally been minimal.

The USGS topographic map for the area only shows the long-disused Groom Mine.^[39] A civil aviation chart published by the Nevada Department of Transportation shows a large restricted area, defined as part of the Nellis restricted airspace.^[40] The National Atlas page showing federal lands in Nevada shows the area as lying within the Nellis Air Force Base.^[41]Higher resolution (and more recent) images from other satellite imagery providers (including Russian providers and the IKONOS) are commercially available.^[1] These show the runway markings, base facilities, aircraft, and vehicles.

Although federal property within the base is exempt from state and local taxes, facilities owned by private contractors are not.^{[citation needed]}

When documents that mention the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and operations at Groom are declassified, mentions of Area 51 and Groom Lake are routinely redacted.^{[citation needed]}One exception is a 1967 memo from CIA director Richard Helms regarding the deployment of three OXCART aircraft from Groom to Kadena Air Base to perform reconnaissance overNorth Vietnam. Although most mentions of OXCART's home base are redacted in this document, as is a map showing the aircraft's route from there to Okinawa, the redactor appears to have missed one mention: page 15 (page 17 in the PDF), section No. 2 ends "Three OXCART aircraft and the necessary task force personnel will be deployed from Area 51 to Kadena."^[4]

In July 2013, CIA released an official history of the U-2 and OXCART projects that officially acknowledged the existence of Area 51. The release was in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in 2005 by Jeffrey T. Richelson of George Washington University's National Security Archives, and contain numerous references to Area 51 and Groom Lake, along with a map of the area.^[25].^[42][43][44]

Security and operations

Area 51 border and warning sign stating that "photography is prohibited" and that "use of deadly force is authorized" under the terms of the 1950McCarran Internal Security Act.

The area surrounding the lake is permanently off-limits both to civilian and normal military air traffic. Security clearances are checked regularly; cameras and weaponry are not allowed.^[11] Even military pilots training in the NAFR risk disciplinary action if they stray into the exclusionary "box" surrounding Groom's airspace.^[5] Surveillance is supplemented using buried motion sensors.^[45] Area 51 is a common destination for Janet, the de facto name of a small fleet of passenger aircraft operated on behalf of the United States Air Force to transport military personnel, primarily fromMcCarran International Airport.

Civil Aviation identification

In December 2007, airline pilots noticed that the base had appeared in their aircraft navigation systems' latest Jeppesen database revision with the ICAO airport identifier code of KXTA and listed as "Homey Airport".^[46] The probably inadvertent release of the airport data led to advice by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) that student pilots should be explicitly warned about KXTA, not to consider it as a waypoint or destination for any flight even though it now appears in public navigation databases.^[46]

Environmental lawsuit

Area 51 viewed from distant Tikaboo Peak

A closed-circuit TV camera watches over the perimeter of Area 51

In 1994, five unnamed civilian contractors and the widows of contractors Walter Kasza and Robert Frost sued the USAF and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Their suit, in which they were represented by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, alleged they had been present when large quantities of unknown chemicals had been burned in open pits and trenches at Groom. Biopsies taken from the complainants were analyzed byRutgers University biochemists, who found high levels of dioxin, dibenzofuran, andtrichloroethylene in their body fat. The complainants alleged they had sustained skin, liver, and respiratory injuries due to their work at Groom, and that this had contributed to the deaths of Frost and Kasza. The suit sought compensation for the injuries they had sustained, claiming the USAF had illegally handled toxic materials, and that the EPA had failed in its duty to enforce the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (which governs handling of dangerous materials.) They also sought detailed information about the chemicals to which they were allegedly exposed, hoping this would facilitate the medical treatment of survivors. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told 60 Minutesreporter Lesley Stahl, "The Air Force is classifying all information about Area 51 in order to protect themselves from a lawsuit."

Citing the State Secrets Privilege, the government petitioned trial judge U.S. District Judge Philip Pro (of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in Las Vegas) to disallow disclosure of classified documents or examination of secret witnesses, alleging this would expose classified information and threaten national security.^[47] When Judge Pro rejected the government's argument, President Bill Clinton issued a Presidential Determination, exempting what it called, "The Air Force's Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada" from environmental disclosure laws. Consequently, Pro dismissed the suit due to lack of evidence. Turley appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on the grounds that the government was abusing its power to classify material. Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall filed a brief that stated that disclosures of the materials present in the air and water near Groom "can reveal military operational capabilities or the nature and scope of classified operations." The Ninth Circuit rejected Turley's appeal,^[48] and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it, putting an end to the complainants' case.

The President continues to annually issue a determination continuing the Groom exception.^[49][50][51] This, and similarly tacit wording used in other government communications, is the only formal recognition the U.S. Government has ever given that Groom Lake is more than simply another part of the Nellis complex.

An unclassified memo on the safe handling of F-117 Nighthawk material was posted on an Air Force web site in 2005. This discussed the same materials for which the complainants had requested information (information the government had claimed was classified). The memo was removed shortly after journalists became aware of it.^[52]

1974 Skylab photography

Groom Lake (upper left) andPapoose Lake (lower right). Photo byDoc Searls, 2010.

In January 2006, space historian Dwayne A. Day published an article in online aerospace magazine The Space Review titled "Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident". The article was based on a memo written in 1974 to CIA director William Colby by an unknown CIA official. The memo reported that astronauts on boardSkylab 4 had, as part of a larger program, inadvertently photographed a location of which the memo said:

There were specific instructions not to do this. <redacted> was the only location which had such an instruction.

Although the name of the location was obscured, the context led Day to believe that the subject was Groom Lake. As Day noted:

[I]n other words, the CIA considered no other spot on Earth to be as sensitive as Groom Lake.^[53][54]

The memo details debate between federal agencies regarding whether the images should be classified, with Department of Defense agencies arguing that it should, and NASA and the State Department arguing against classification. The memo itself questions the legality of unclassified images to be retroactively classified.

Remarks on the memo,^[55] handwritten apparently by DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) Colby himself, read:

[Secretary of State Rusk] did raise it—said State Dept. people felt strongly. But he inclined leave decision to me (DCI)—I confessed some question over need to protect since:

1. USSR has it from own sats
2. What really does it reveal?
3. If exposed, don't we just say classified USAF work is done there?

The declassified documents do not disclose the outcome of discussions regarding the Skylab imagery. The behind-the-scenes debate proved moot as the photograph appeared in the Federal Government's Archive of Satellite Imagery along with the remaining Skylab 4 photographs, with no record of anyone noticing until Day identified it in 2007.^[56]

Other satellite imagery

Other satellite imagery is also available, including images that show what appears to be F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft stationed on the base.^[57]

UFO and other conspiracy theories

Its secretive nature and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led Area 51 to become a focus of modern UFO and conspiracy theories. Some of the activities mentioned in such theories at Area 51 include:

• The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell), the study of their occupants (living and dead), and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology.
• Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.
• The development of exotic energy weapons for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or other weapons programs.
• The development of means of weather control.
• The development of time travel and teleportation technology.
• The development of unusual and exotic propulsion systems related to the Aurora Program.
• Activities related to a supposed shadowy one world government or the Majestic 12 organization.

Many of the hypotheses concern underground facilities at Groom or at Papoose Lake (also known as "S-4 location"), 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south, and include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system, a disappearing airstrip (nicknamed the "Cheshire Airstrip", after Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat) which briefly appears when water is sprayed onto its camouflaged asphalt,^[58] and engineering based on alien technology. Publicly available satellite imagery, however, reveals clearly visible landing strips at Groom Dry Lake, but not at Papoose Lake.

In the mid-1950s, civilian aircraft flew under 20,000 feet while military aircraft flew under 40,000 feet. Once the U-2 began flying at above 60,000 feet, an unexpected side effect was an increasing number of UFO sighting reports. Sightings occurred most often during early evenings hours, when airline pilots flying west saw the U-2's silver wings reflect the setting sun, giving the aircraft a "fiery" appearance. Many sighting reports came to the Air Force's Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings, through air-traffic controllers and letters to the government. The project checked U-2 and later OXCART flight records to eliminate the majority of UFO reports it received during the late 1950s and 1960s, although it could not reveal to the letter writers the truth behind what they saw.^[25]:72–73 Similarly, veterans of experimental projects such as OXCART and NERVA at Area 51 agree that their work (including 2,850 OXCART test flights alone) inadvertently prompted many of the UFO sightings and other rumors:^[10]

The shape of OXCART was unprecedented, with its wide, disk-like fuselage designed to carry vast quantities of fuel. Commercial pilots cruising over Nevada at dusk would look up and see the bottom of OXCART whiz by at 2,000-plus mph. The aircraft's titanium body, moving as fast as a bullet, would reflect the sun's rays in a way that could make anyone think, UFO.^[10]

They believe that the rumors helped maintain secrecy over Area 51's actual operations.^[11] While the veterans deny the existence of a vast underground railroad system, many of Area 51's operations did (and presumably still do) occur underground.^[10]

• Bob Lazar

See: S-4 (facility) for further information

Several people have claimed knowledge of events supporting Area 51 conspiracy theories. These have included Bob Lazar, who claimed in 1989 that he had worked at Area 51's "Sector Four (S-4)", said to be located underground inside the Papoose Range near Papoose Lake. Lazar has stated he was contracted to work with alien spacecraft that the U.S. government had in its possession.^[59]

• Bruce Burgess

Similarly, the 1996 documentary Dreamland directed by Bruce Burgess included an interview with a 71-year-old mechanical engineer who claimed to be a former employee at Area 51 during the 1950s. His claims included that he had worked on a "flying disc simulator" which had been based on a disc originating from a crashed extraterrestrial craft and was used to train US Pilots. He also claimed to have worked with an extraterrestrial being named "J-Rod" and described as a "telepathic translator".^[60]

• Dan Burisch

In 2004, Dan Burisch (pseudonym of Dan Crain) claimed to have worked on cloning alien viruses at Area 51, also alongside the alien named "J-Rod". Burisch's scholarly credentials are the subject of much debate, as he was apparently working as a Las Vegas parole officer in 1989 while also earning a PhD at State University of New York (SUNY).^[61]

In popular culture

Novels, films, television programs, and other fictional portrayals of Area 51 describe it—or a fictional counterpart—as a haven for extraterrestrials, time travel, and sinister conspiracies, often linking it with the Roswell UFO incident. In the 1996 action film Independence Day, the United States military uses alien technology captured at Roswell to attack the invading alien fleet from Area 51. The "Hangar 51"^[62] government warehouse of the Indiana Jones films stores, among other exotic items, the Ark of the Covenant and an alien corpse from Roswell. The television series Seven Days takes place inside Area 51, with the base containing a covert NSA time travel operation using alien technology recovered from Roswell. The 2005 video game Area 51 is set in the base, and mentions the Roswell and moon landing hoax conspiracy theories.

The Las Vegas 51s are a AAA minor league professional baseball team.

See also

	United States Air Force portal
	North America portal

• Black site
• Black project
• Special Access Program
• Dugway Proving Ground, a restricted facility in the Utah desert.
• Groom Range, a mountain range north of the lakebed.
• Kapustin Yar, a Russian rocket launch and development site.
• Woomera Prohibited Area, a defense and aerospace testing area in Australia.
• Tonopah Test Range, also known as Area 52
• Tonopah Test Range Airport, a large airfield which also resides within the Nellis Range.

References

General

• Rich, Ben R.; Janos, Leo (1994). Skunk Works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-74300-6
• Darlington, David (1998). Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-6040-9
• Patton, Phil (1998). Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51. New York: Villard / Random House ISBN 978-0-375-75385-5
• Area 51 resources at the Federation of American Scientists.
• Lesley Stahl "Area 51 / Catch 22" 60 Minutes CBS Television 17 March 1996, a US TV news magazine's segment about the environmental lawsuit.
• Area 51 related article archive from the pages of the Las Vegas Review-Journal
• Jacobsen, Annie (2011). "Area 51". New York, Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-13294-7 (hc)

Specific

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d "Overhead: Groom Lake - Area 51". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
2. Jump up^http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/01/airforce_area51_080123w/
3. Jump up^ "Intelligence Officers Bookshelf — Central Intelligence Agency". Cia.gov. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Richard Helms (15 May 1967). ""OXCART reconnaissance of North Vietnam", Memo to the Deputy Secretary of Defense from the office of CIA Director Richard Helms, 15 May 1967". CIA. Archived from the originalon 15 October 2012. (the full declassified document ismirrored at Wikimedia Commons)
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall, George; Skinner, Michael (1993). Red Flag. Motorbooks International. ISBN 978-0-87938-759-4.
6. Jump up^ Rich, Ben R; Janos, Leo (1994). Skunk Works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-316-74300-6. "Kelly [Johnson, the U2's designer] had jokingly nicknamed this Godforsaken place Paradise Ranch, hoping to lure young and innocent flight crews."
7. Jump up^ Patton, p. 3, nicknames Paradise Ranch,Rich, Ben R; Janos, Leo (1994). Skunk Works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 56.ISBN 978-0-316-74300-6. "Kelly [Johnson, the U2's designer] had jokingly nicknamed this Godforsaken place Paradise Ranch, hoping to lure young and innocent flight crews."
8. Jump up^ "Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts". SkyVector. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
9. Jump up^ Rich, Ben R; Janos, Leo (1994). Skunk Works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-316-74300-6. "... a sprawling facility, bigger than some municipal airports, a test range for sensitive aviation projects."
10. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Jacobsen, Annie (2012). Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-20230-4.
11. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Lacitis, Erik (27 March 2010). "Area 51 vets break silence: Sorry, but no space aliens or UFOs". Seattle Times Newspaper. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
12. Jump up^ https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/the-cia-declassifies-area-51/
13. Jump up^ Regenold, Stephen (13 April 2007). "Lonesome Highway to Another World?". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
14. Jump up^ "US Department of Energy. Nevada Operations Office.United States Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through September 1992 (December 2000)" (PDF). Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
15. Jump up^ http://ndep.nv.gov/boff/nts-use.jpg
16. Jump up^ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/facility/nts_fig1.gif
17. Jump up^ "Query Form For The United States And Its Territories". U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
    • "Groom Lake (GNIS code 840824)". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
18. Jump up^ Strickland, Jonathan. "How Area 51 Works". How Stuff Work.
19. Jump up^ http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/r44.pdf
20. ^ Jump up to:^a b c "Groom Mining District Collection 99-19". Knowledgecenter.unr.edu. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
21. Jump up^ Mueller, Robert. Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Center for Air Force History,USAF. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.
22. Jump up^http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/WW2/WW2%20R27e%20ID-NH.htm
23. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q} Peebles, Curtis (1999).Dark Eagles, Revised Edition. Novato, CA: Presidio Press.ISBN 0-89141-696-X.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Peebles, Curtis (2000). Shadow Flights: America's Secret Air War Against the Soviet Union. Novato, CA: Presidio Press. pp. 141–144. ISBN 978-0-89141-700-2. "I gave it a ten plus [score] ... a dry lake bed around three and a half miles around", and describes Tony LeViershowing the lake to Johnson and Bissell, and Johnson deciding to locate the runway "at south end of lake"
25. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Pedlow, Gregory W.; Welzenbach, Donald E. (1992). The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974. Washington DC: History Staff, Central Intelligence Agency.
26. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d A-12, YF-12A, & SR-71 Timeline of Events (Report). "30 Oct 1967 Dennis Sullivan flying an A-12 mission over North Vietnam had 6 missiles launched against him, 3 detonated, on post flight inspection, they found a small piece of metal from missile imbeded in lower wing fillet area (LSW)"
27. Jump up^ The U-2's Intended Successor: Project Oxcart,1956-1968 (Report). approved for released by the CIA in October 1994. "The new 8,500-foot runway was completed by 15 November 1960."
28. Jump up^ "OSA History, chap. 20, pp. 39-40, 43, 51 ... "OXCART Story" pp. 7-9 (S) (cited by The U-2's Intended Successor")
29. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d "The Oxcart Story". Cia.gov. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
30. ^ Jump up to:^a b "U-2 and SR-71 Units, Bases and Detachments". Ais.org. 1995. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
31. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Steve Davies: "Red Eagles. America's Secret MiGs", Osprey Publishing, 2008
32. Jump up^ Rich, pp. 56–60
33. ^ Jump up to:^a b c http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/stealth.pdf
34. Jump up^ "Area 51 Test Site". F-117A. 14 July 2003. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
35. Jump up^ "4450th TG". F-117A. 1 April 2002. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
36. Jump up^ "Tonopah Test Range (TTR)". F-117A. 14 July 2003. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
37. ^ Jump up to:^a b c "JTF "Baja Scorpions" of Groom Lake". F-117A. 14 July 2003. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
38. Jump up^ Mary Motta (22 April 2000). "Images of Top-Secret U.S. Air Base Show Growth". space.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2001.
39. Jump up^ "Groom Mine, NV - N37.34583° W115.76583°". Topoquest.com. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
40. Jump up^http://www.nevadadot.com/uploadedFiles/NDOT/Traveler_Info/Maps/Nevada%20Aviaton%202013-2014%20Front.pdf
41. Jump up^ nationalatlas.gov. "Map of Federal lands in Nevada". US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
42. Jump up^ "CIA acknowledges its mysterious Area 51 test site for first time". Reuters Archive. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
43. Jump up^ "Area 51 officially acknowledged, mapped in newly released documents". CNN. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
44. Jump up^ Leiby, Richard (17 August 2013). "Government officially acknowledges existence of Area 51, but not the UFOs".The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
45. Jump up^ Kevin Poulsen (25 May 2004). "Area 51 hackers dig up trouble". Securityfocus.com. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
46. ^ Jump up to:^a b Marsh, Alton K. (10 January 2008). "Don't ask, don't tell: Area 51 gets airport identifier - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association". Aopa.org. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
47. Jump up^ "Search | Las Vegas Review-Journal". Reviewjournal.com. June 4, 2002. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
48. Jump up^http://archive.ca9.uscourts.gov/coa/newopinions.nsf/77F9FB6C3552927E88256D05007AE266/$file/0016378.pdf?openelement
49. Jump up^ "2000 Presidential Determination". Retrieved 10 June 2010.
50. Jump up^ "2002 Presidential Determination". Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. 18 September 2002. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
51. Jump up^ "2003 Presidential Determination". Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. 16 September 2003. Archivedfrom the original on 10 May 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
52. Jump up^ 21-Sun-2006/news/7488359.html "Search | Las Vegas Review-Journal". Reviewjournal.com. 21 May 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
53. Jump up^ Day, Dwayne A. (9 January 2006). "Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident". The Space Review (online).Archived from the original on 16 March 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2006.
54. Jump up^ "Presidential Determination No. 2003–39". Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. 16 September 2003. Archived from the original on 10 May 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
55. Jump up^ "CIA memo to DCI Colby" (PDF). Hosted by The Space Review. Archived from the original on 26 March 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2006.
56. Jump up^ Day, Dwayne A. (26 November 2007). "Secret Apollo".The Space Review (online). Retrieved 16 February 2009.
57. Jump up^http://wikimapia.org/#lang=el&lat=37.244866&lon=-115.816364&z=19&m=b
58. Jump up^ Mahood, Tom (October 1996). "The Cheshire Airstrip". Archived from the original on 16 March 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2006.
59. Jump up^ "S4 Sport Model – Cetin BAL – GSM:+90 05366063183 – Turkey / Denizli". Zamandayolculuk.com. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
60. Jump up^ Dreamland, Transmedia and Dandelion Production for Sky Television (1996).
61. Jump up^ Sheaffer, Robert (November–December 2004). "Tunguska 1, Roswell 0". Skeptical Inquirer (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) 28 (6). Archived from the original on 29 March 2008.
62. Jump up^ Rinzler, J.W.; Bouzereau, Laurent (2008). The Complete Making of Indiana Jones. London: Ebury. p. 249.ISBN 978-0-09-192661-8.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Area 51.

General

• Dreamland Resort – Detailed history of Area 51
• Roadrunners Internationale – Covering the history of the U2 and A-12 Blackbird spy plane projects
• "How Area 51 Works", on HowStuffWorks

Maps and photographs

• The site Wikimapia
• Dreamland Resort's map of Area 51 buildings
• Dreamland Resort Maps – Maps of Area 51 and Google Earth plug-ins
• Topographic Map of the Emigrant Valley / Groom area
• Aerial photos of Area 51 show the base's growth since 1959
• Photographs of McCarran EG&G terminal and JANET aircraft
• Official FAA aeronautical chart of Groom Lake
• Historical pictures of Groom Lake, Groom Lake Mining District, Department of Special Collections, Digital Image Collections, University of Nevada, Reno, accessed 30 January 2009

Roswell UFO incident

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 33.97°N 105.24°W

Roswell UFO incident

Roswell Daily Record, July 8, 1947, announcing the "capture" of a "flying saucer."
Date	1947
Location	Chaves County, New Mexico, United States

The Roswell UFO incident took place in the U.S. in June or July 1947, when an airborne object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Explanations of what took place are based on both official and unofficial communications. Although the crash is attributed to a secret U.S. military Air Force surveillance balloon by the U.S. government,^[1] the most famous explanation of what occurred is that the object was a spacecraftcontaining extraterrestrial life. Since the late 1970s, the Roswell incident has been the subject of much controversy, and conspiracy theorieshave arisen about the event.

The United States Armed Forces maintains that what was recovered near Roswell was debris from the crash of an experimental high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to what was then a classified (top secret) program named Mogul. In contrast, many UFO proponents maintain that an alien craft was found, its occupants were captured, and that the military engaged in a massive cover-up. The Roswell incident has turned into a widely known pop culture phenomenon, making the name "Roswell" synonymous with UFOs. Roswell has become the most publicized of all alleged UFO incidents.

On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut, issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disk", which had crashed on a ranch near Roswell. Later that day, the press reported that Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force Roger Ramey had stated that a weather balloon was recovered by the RAAF personnel. A press conference was held, featuring debris (foil, rubber and wood) said to be from the crashed object, which seemed to confirm its description as a weather balloon.

Subsequently the incident faded from the attention of UFO researchers for over 30 years. In 1978, physicist and ufologistStanton T. Friedman interviewed Major Jesse Marcel who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947. Marcel expressed his belief that the military covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft. His story spread through UFO circles, being featured in some UFO documentaries at the time. In February 1980, the National Enquirer ran its own interview with Marcel, garnering national and worldwide attention for the Roswell incident. Additional witnesses added significant new details, including claims of a large-scale military operation dedicated to recovering alien craft and aliens themselves, at as many as 11 crash sites, and alleged witness intimidation. In 1989, former mortician Glenn Dennis put forth a detailed personal account, wherein he claimed alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base.

In response to these reports, and after United States congressional inquiries, the General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the United States Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was summarized in two reports. The first, released in 1995, concluded that the reported recovered material in 1947 was likely debris from Project Mogul. The second report, released in 1997, concluded reports of recovered alien bodies were likely a combination of innocently transformed memories of military accidents involving injured or killed personnel, innocently transformed memories of the recovery of anthropomorphic dummies in military programs like Operation High Dive conducted in the 1950s, and hoaxes perpetrated by various witnesses and UFO proponents. The psychological effects of time compression and confusion about when events occurred explained the discrepancy with the years in question. These reports were dismissed by UFO proponents as being either disinformation or simply implausible. But at the same time, several high-profile UFO researchers discounted the possibility that the incident had anything to do with aliens.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Contemporary accounts
• 2 Witnesses
  • 2.1 Witness accounts, emergence of alien narratives
  • 2.2 The Roswell Incident (1980)
  • 2.3 UFO Crash at Roswell (1991)
  • 2.4 Crash at Corona (1992)
  • 2.5 The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell (1994)
  • 2.6 UFO community schism
  • 2.7 Alien autopsy footage
• 3 Air Force and skeptics respond
  • 3.1 Air Force reports
  • 3.2 Problems with witness accounts
  • 3.3 Contradictory conclusions, questionable research, Roswell as a myth
  • 3.4 Roswellian Syndrome
• 4 Developments since 1990s
  • 4.1 Pro-UFO advocates dismiss Roswell incident
  • 4.2 Shoddy research revealed; witnesses suspected of hoaxes
  • 4.3 Photo analysis; documentaries; new claims
  • 4.4 Top Secret/Majic (2005 edition)
  • 4.5 Witness to Roswell (2007)
  • 4.6 Walter Haut controversy
    • 4.6.1 UFO FBI document release, 2011
  • 4.7 Area 51 (2011)
• 5 See also
• 6 Notes
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Contemporary accounts[edit]

The Sacramento Bee article detailing the RAAF statements

On June 14, 1947, William Brazel, a foreman working on the Foster homestead, noticed strange clusters of debris approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Roswell, New Mexico. This date—or "about three weeks" before July 8—appeared in later stories featuring Brazel, but the initial press release from the Roswell Army Air Field(RAAF) said the find was "sometime last week," suggesting Brazel found the debris in early July.^[2] Brazel told the Roswell Daily Record that he and his son saw a "large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks."^[3] He paid little attention to it but returned on July 4 with his son, wife and daughter to gather up the material.^[4] Some accounts have described Brazel as having gathered some of the material earlier, rolling it together and stashing it under some brush.^[5] The next day, Brazel heard reports about "flying discs" and wondered if that was what he had picked up.^[4] On July 7, Brazel saw Sheriff Wilcox and "whispered kinda confidential like" that he may have found a flying disc.^[4] Another account quotes Wilcox as saying Brazel reported the object on July 6.^[2]

Wilcox called RAAF Major Jesse Marcel and a "man in plainclothes" accompanied Brazel back to the ranch where more pieces were picked up. "[We] spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon [July 7] looking for any more parts of the weather device", said Marcel. "We found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber."^[6]

As described in the July 9, 1947 edition of the Roswell Daily Record,

The balloon which held it up, if that was how it worked, must have been 12 feet long, [Brazel] felt, measuring the distance by the size of the room in which he sat. The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards in diameter. When the debris was gathered up, the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet long and 7 or 8 inches thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches long and about 8 inches thick. In all, he estimated, the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine, and no sign of any propellers of any kind, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable Scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used.^[7]

A telex sent to an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office from the Fort Worth, Texas office quoted a Major from the Eighth Air Force (also based in Fort Worth at Carswell Air Force Base) on July 8, 1947 as saying that "The disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a ballon [sic] by cable, which ballon [sic] was approximately twenty feet in diameter. Major Curtan further advices that the object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, but that telephonic conversation between their office and Wright field had not [UNINTELLIGIBLE] borne out this belief."^[8]

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) weather balloon after launching

Early on Tuesday, July 8, the RAAF issued a press release, which was immediately picked up by numerous news outlets:^[9]

The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff's office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher's home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.^[10]

Colonel William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the 509th, contacted General Roger M. Ramey of the Eighth Air Force in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ramey ordered the object be flown to Fort Worth Army Air Field. At the base, Warrant Officer Irving Newton confirmed Ramey’s preliminary opinion, identifying the object as being a weather balloon and its "kite,"^[5] a nickname for a radar reflector used to track the balloons from the ground. Another news release was issued, this time from the Fort Worth base, describing the object as being a "weather balloon".

Witnesses[edit]

See also: Witness accounts of the Roswell UFO incident

Witness accounts, emergence of alien narratives[edit]

In 1978, nuclear physicist and author Stanton T. Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel, the only person known to have accompanied the Roswell debris from where it was recovered to Fort Worth where reporters saw material which was claimed to be part of the recovered object. The accounts given by Friedman and others in the following years elevated Roswell from a forgotten incident to perhaps the most famous UFO case of all time.^[11] By the early 1990s, UFO researchers such as Friedman, William Moore, Karl T. Pflock, and the team of Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt interviewed several hundred people who had—or claimed to have had—a connection with the events at Roswell in 1947.^[12] Additionally, hundreds of documents were obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, and some were supposedly leaked by insiders, such as the so-called Majestic 12 papers.^[13] Their conclusions were at least one alien craft had crashed in the Roswell vicinity, aliens—some possibly still alive—were recovered, and a massive cover-up of any knowledge of the incident was put in place.^[11]

Over the years, books, articles, television specials, and a made-for-TV movie brought the 1947 incident significant notoriety.^[11] By the mid-1990s, public polls such as a 1997 CNN/Time poll, revealed that the majority of people interviewed believed that aliens had indeed visited Earth, and that aliens had landed at Roswell, but that all the relevant information was being kept secret by the US government.^[14]

Various narratives evolved, starting with Friedman's 1978 interviews with Marcel, through publication of the first book on Roswell in 1980, to new accounts and new books appearing into the early 1990s. Many new witnesses had by then emerged, as had new accounts that detailed recoveries of alien corpses and alien autopsies.^[11] Skeptics such as Phillip Klass and Richard Todd published objections to the plausibility of these accounts, but it was not until 1994 and the publication of the first United States Air Force report on the incident, that a strong counter-argument to the presence of aliens was widely publicized.^[11] Various authors enumerated different alien scenarios which often contradicted each other, based on what the documentary evidence suggested and on which witness accounts were accepted or dismissed. This was especially true for the various claimed sites for the crash and recovery sites of alien craft (various authors had different witnesses who described different locations for these events).^[11]

The outline from UFO Crash at Roswell (1991) by Randle and Schmitt is common to many of these accounts:

A UFO crashed northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947. The military acted quickly and efficiently to recover the debris after its existence was reported by a ranch hand. The debris, unlike anything these highly trained men had ever seen, was flown without delay to at least three government installations. A cover story was concocted to explain away the debris and the flurry of activity. It was explained that a weather balloon, one with a new radiosonde target device, had been found and temporarily confused the personnel of the 509th Bomb Group. Government officials took reporters' notes from their desks and warned a radio reporter not to play a recorded interview with the ranch hand. The men who took part in the recovery were told never to talk about the incident. And with a whimper, not a bang, the Roswell event faded quickly from public view and press scrutiny.^[15]

The Roswell Incident (1980)[edit]

The first book on the Roswell UFO incident was The Roswell Incident (1980) by Charles Berlitz and William Moore. The authors claimed to have interviewed over ninety witnesses. Though he was uncredited, Friedman carried out some research for the book.^[16] The Roswell Incident featured accounts of debris described by Marcel as "nothing made on this earth."^[17]Additional accounts by Bill Brazel,^[18] son of Mac Brazel, neighbor Floyd Proctor^[19] and Walt Whitman Jr.,^[20] son of newsman W. E. Whitman who had interviewed Mac Brazel, suggested the material Marcel recovered had super-strength not associated with a weather balloon. The book introduced the contention that debris which was recovered by Marcel at the Foster ranch, visible in photographs showing Marcel posing with the debris, was substituted for debris from a weather device as part of a cover-up.^[21][22] The book also claimed that the debris recovered from the ranch was not permitted a close inspection by the press. The efforts by the military were described as being intended to discredit and "counteract the growing hysteria towards flying saucers".^[23] Two accounts^[24] of witness intimidation were included in the book, including the incarceration of Mac Brazel.^[25]

The book included a report of Roswell residents Dan Wilmot and his wife seeing "two inverted saucers faced mouth to mouth" passing overhead on July 2,^[26] as were other reports of mysterious objects seen flying overhead.^[27] The Roswell Incident introduced an alien account by Socorro, New Mexico resident Barney Barnett, who had died years earlier. Friends of Barnett said he described the crash of a flying saucer and the recovery of alien corpses in the vicinity of Socorro, about 150 miles (240 km) west of the Foster ranch. He and a group of archaeologists stumbled upon an alien craft, and its occupants on the morning of July 3, only to be led away by military personnel.^[28] Further accounts suggested that the aliens and the craft were transported to Edwards Air Force Base in California.^[29] The book suggested that either there were two crafts that crashed, or that debris from the vehicle Barnett described had subsequently landed on the Foster ranch after an explosion.^[28]

Marcel said he "heard about it on July 7"^[30] when the sheriff Brazel had called him, but said, "[On] Sunday, July 6, Brazel decided he had better go into town and report this to someone," and that Brazel in turn called Marcel, suggesting—though not stating that Marcel was contacted on July 6.^[31] In 1947, Marcel was quoted as saying that he visited the ranch on Monday, July 7.^[6] Marcel described returning to Roswell the evening of July 7 to find that news of the incident had been leaked. Calls were made to Marcel's house, and he had a visit from a reporter, but he would not confirm the reports to the press. "The next morning, that written press release went out, and after that things really hit the fan."^[32] The book suggested that the military orchestrated Brazel's testimony in order to make it appear that a mundane object had crash landed on the ranch. "Brazel [...] [went] to great pains to tell the newspaper people exactly what the Air Force had instructed him to say regarding how he had come to discover the wreckage and what it looked like [...]".^[33]

UFO Crash at Roswell (1991)[edit]

In 1991, with the benefit of publicity from new witness interviews, Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt published UFO Crash at Roswell. In this account, the timelines of the incident were slightly altered. The date when Brazel reported the debris and Marcel went to the ranch was said to be Sunday, July 6, not the next day, as some of the original accounts suggested, andThe Roswell Incident left unclear. Marcel and an unidentified counter-intelligence agent were said to have spent the night at the ranch. The two gathered material on Monday, then Marcel supposedly dropped by his house on the way to the Roswell base in the early hours of Tuesday, July 8.^[34]

Some new details emerged, including accounts of a "gouge [...] that extended four or five hundred feet" at the ranch^[35] and descriptions of an elaborate cordon and recovery operation. Several witnesses in The Roswell Incident described being turned back from the Foster ranch by armed military police, but extensive descriptions were not given.^{[citation needed]} The Barnett accounts were mentioned, though the dates and locations were changed from the accounts found in The Roswell Incident. In the new account, Brazel was described as leading the Army to a second crash site on the ranch, at which point the Army personnel were supposedly "horrified to find civilians [including Barnett] there already."^[36]

Glenn Dennis had emerged as an important witness in 1989, after calling the hotline when an episode of Unsolved Mysteriesfeatured the Roswell incident. His descriptions of Roswell alien autopsies were the first account that said there were alien corpses at the Roswell Army Air Base.^[11] No mention, except in passing, was made of the claim found in The Roswell Incident that the Roswell aliens and the craft were shipped to Edwards Air Force Base. The 1991 book purported to establish a chain of events with alien corpses being seen at a crash site, the bodies then being shipped to the Roswell base as witnessed by Dennis, and then flown to Fort Worth, and finally to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, the last known location of the bodies.^{[citation needed]}

The book introduced an account from General Arthur E. Exon, an officer stationed at the alleged final resting place of the recovered material. He stated there was a shadowy group, which he called the "Unholy Thirteen", who controlled and had access to whatever was recovered.^[37] He later stated:

In the '55 time period [when Exon was at the Pentagon], there was also the story that whatever happened, whatever was found at Roswell was still closely held and probably would be held until these fellows I mentioned had died so they wouldn't be embarrassed or they wouldn't have to explain why they covered it up. [...] [U]ntil the original thirteen died off and I don't think anyone is going to release anything [until] the last one's gone.^[38]

Crash at Corona (1992)[edit]

In 1992, a third book, Crash at Corona, was published. Written by Friedman and Don Berliner, it suggested a high-level cover-up of a UFO recovery, based on documents which were anonymously dropped off at a UFO researcher's house in 1984. The documents were purported to be 1952 briefing papers for incoming president Dwight Eisenhower, describing a high-level government agency whose purpose was to investigate aliens recovered at Roswell and to keep such information hidden from public view. Friedman had done much of the research for The Roswell Incident with William Moore, and Crash at Corona built on this research.

The title of the book was Corona, New Mexico rather than Roswell, New Mexico, because Corona is geographically closer to the Foster ranch crash site.^[39] The timeline of events that the book gives is the same as the previous account, with Marcel and Sheridan Cavitt, a counter-intelligence agent who was likely the "man in plainclothes" described by Brazel in 1947, visiting the ranch on July 6. The 1992 book says, however, that Brazel was "taken into custody for about a week" and escorted into the offices of the Roswell Daily Record on July 10, where he gave an account that he had been told to give by the government.^[40]

A sign of the disagreements between various researchers is evident, as Friedman and Berliner moved the Barnett account back to near Socorro and introduced a new eyewitness account of the site. This new account is from Gerald Anderson who provided vivid descriptions of both a downed alien craft and four aliens, of which at least one was alive.^[41] The authors note much of the evidence had been dismissed by the authors of UFO Crash at Roswell and that this had been done "without a solid basis".^[42] The 1992 authors also mention "a personality conflict between Anderson and Randle" meaning that Friedman was the author who investigated his claim.^[43] The book, however, does largely embrace the same sequence of events as the account in UFO Crash at Roswell, where aliens are seen at the Roswell Army Air Field, based on the Dennis account, and then shipped off to Fort Worth, and subsequently to Wright Field. The book suggests that as many as eight alien corpses were recovered from two crash sites: three dead and perhaps one alive from the Foster ranch, and three dead and one living from the Socorro site.^[44]

The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell (1994)[edit]

In 1994, Randle and Schmitt published The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell. While it restated a majority of the case as laid out in their earlier book, new and expanded accounts of aliens were included, and a new location for the recovery of aliens was detailed. Additionally, an almost completely new scenario for the sequence of events was laid out. For the first time, the airborne object was said to have crashed on the evening of July 4 instead of July 2, which was the date used in all the previous books. Another important difference was the assertion that the alien recovery was well under way before Brazel traveled to Roswell with his news about the debris on the Foster ranch. Apparently several objects had been tracked by radar for a few days in the vicinity before one crashed. In all previous accounts, the military was made aware of the alleged alien crash only when Brazel came forward. Additionally, Brazel was said to have given his news conference on July 9, and the 1994 book claims that his press conference and the initial news release announcing the discovery of a "flying disk" were all part of an elaborate ruse to shift attention away from the "true" crash site.^{[citation needed]}

The book featured a new witness account describing an alien craft and aliens from Jim Ragsdale,^[who?] at a new location north of Roswell, instead of closer to Corona on the Foster ranch. Corroboration was given by accounts from a group of archaeologists. Five alien corpses were supposedly seen.^[45] The book states that although the Foster ranch was also a source of debris, no bodies were recovered from it. The book also features expanded accounts from Dennis and Kaufmann, and a new account from Ruben Anaya which describes New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Joseph Montoya's claim that he saw alien corpses at the Roswell base.^{[citation needed]}

More disagreement between Roswell researchers forms part of the book. A full chapter is devoted to dismissing the Barnett and Anderson accounts from Socorro, a central part of Crash at Corona and The Roswell Incident. "[...] Barnett's story [and] the Plains [of San Augustin, near Soccoro] scenario, must be discarded", say the authors.^[46] An appendix is devoted to describing Majestic 12 as a hoax.^[47] The two Randle and Schmitt books remain highly influential in the UFO community; their interviews and conclusions widely reproduced on websites.^[48] Randle and Schmitt claimed to have "conducted more than two thousand interviews with more than five hundred people" during their Roswell investigations.^[38]

UFO community schism[edit]

By 1994 when The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell was published, a schism had emerged within the UFO community about the events in the Roswell UFO incident.^[49] The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Mutual UFO Network(MUFON), two leading UFO societies, disagreed in their views of the various scenarios presented by Randle–Schmitt and Friedman–Berliner; several conferences were held to try to resolve the differences. One of the center issues under discussion was where Barnett was when he saw the alien craft he was said to have encountered. A 1992 UFO conference attempted to achieve a consensus among the various scenarios portrayed in Crash at Corona and UFO Crash at Roswell, however, the publication of The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell had "resolved" the Barnett problem by simply ignoring Barnett and citing a new location for the alien craft recovery, including a new group of archaeologists not connected to the ones the Barnett story cited.^[49]

Alien autopsy footage[edit]

In 1995, film footage purporting to show an alien autopsy and claimed to have been taken by a US military official shortly after the Roswell incident was released by Ray Santilli, a London-based video entrepreneur. The footage caused an international sensation when it aired on television networks around the world.

In 2006, Santilli admitted that the film was mostly a reconstruction, but continued to claim it was based on genuine footage now lost, and some original frames that had survived. A fictionalized version of the creation of the footage and its release was retold in the comedy film Alien Autopsy (2006).^[50][51]

Air Force and skeptics respond[edit]

Air Force reports[edit]

Main article: Air Force reports on the Roswell UFO incident

During the mid-1990s, the United States Air Force issued two reports which accounted for the debris that was found and reported on in 1947, and which also accounted for the later reports of alien recoveries. The USAF reports identified the debris as coming from a top-secret government experiment called Project Mogul, which tested the feasibility of detectingSoviet nuclear tests and ballistic missiles with equipment that was carried aloft using high-altitude balloons. Accounts of aliens were explained as resulting from misidentified military experiments that used anthropomorphic dummies, accidents involving injured or killed military personnel, and hoaxes perpetrated by various witnesses and UFO proponents.^{[citation needed]} The Air Force report formed a basis for a skeptical response to the claims many authors were making about the recovery of aliens, though skeptical researchers such as Philip J. Klass and Robert Todd had already been publishing articles for several years that raised significant doubts about the accounts of aliens in the incident.

Books published into the 1990s suggested there was much more to the Roswell incident than the mere recovery of a weather balloon, however, skeptics, and even some social anthropologists^[52] saw the increasingly elaborate accounts as evidence of a myth being constructed. After the release of the Air Force reports, several books, such as Kal Korff's The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don't Want You To Know (1997), built on the evidence presented in the reports to conclude "there is no credible evidence that the remains of an extraterrestrial spacecraft was involved."^[12]

Problems with witness accounts[edit]

Hundreds of people were interviewed by the various researchers, but critics point out that only a few of these people claimed to have seen debris or aliens. Most witnesses were repeating the claims of others, and their testimony would be considered hearsay in an American court of law and therefore inadmissible as evidence. Of the 90 people claimed to have been interviewed for The Roswell Incident, the testimony of only 25 appears in the book, and only seven of these people saw the debris. Of these, five handled the debris.^[53] Pflock, in Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe (2001), makes a similar point about Randle and Schmitt's UFO Crash at Roswell. Approximately 271 people are listed in the book who were "contacted and interviewed" for the book, and this number does not include those who chose to remain anonymous, meaning more than 300 witnesses were interviewed, a figure Pflock said the authors frequently cited.^[54] Of these 300-plus individuals, only 41 can be "considered genuine first- or second-hand witnesses to the events in and around Roswell or at the Fort Worth Army Air Field," and only 23 can be "reasonably thought to have seen physical evidence, debris recovered from the Foster Ranch." Of these, only seven have asserted anything suggestive of otherworldly origins for the debris.^[54]

As for the accounts from those who claimed to have seen aliens, critics identified problems ranging from the reliability of second-hand accounts, to credibility problems with witnesses making demonstrably false claims, or multiple, contradictory accounts, to dubious death-bed confessions or accounts from elderly and easily confused witnesses.^[55][56][57] Pflock noted that only four people with supposed firsthand knowledge of alien bodies were interviewed and identified by Roswell authors: Frank Kaufmann; Jim Ragsdale; Lt. Col. Albert Lovejoy Duran; Gerald Anderson.^[58] Duran is mentioned in a brief footnote in The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell and never again, while the other three all have serious credibility problems. A problem with all the accounts, charge critics, is they all came about a minimum of 31 years after the events in question, and in many cases were recounted more than 40 years after the fact. Not only are memories this old of dubious reliability, they were also subject to contamination from other accounts the interviewees may have been exposed to.^[11] The shifting claims of Jesse Marcel, whose suspicion that what he recovered in 1947 was "not of this world" sparked interest in the incident in the first place, cast serious doubt on the reliability of what he claimed to be true.

In The Roswell Incident, Marcel stated, "Actually, this material may have looked like tinfoil and balsa wood, but the resemblance ended there [...] They took one picture of me on the floor holding up some of the less-interesting metallic debris [...] The stuff in that one photo was pieces of the actual stuff we found. It was not a staged photo."^[59] Timothy Printy points out that the material Marcel positively identified as being part of what he recovered is material that skeptics and UFO advocates agree is debris from a balloon device.^[8] After that fact was pointed out to him, Marcel changed his story to say that that material was not what he recovered.^[8] Skeptics like Robert Todd argued that Marcel had a history of embellishment and exaggeration, such as claiming to have been a pilot and having received five Air Medals for shooting down enemy planes, claims that were all found to be false, and skeptics feel that his evolving Roswell story was simply another instance of this tendency to fabricate.^[60]

Contradictory conclusions, questionable research, Roswell as a myth[edit]

Critics^[who?] also point out that the large variety of claimed crash flights suggests that events that spanned years have been incorporated into one single event,^[11] and that authors^[who?] have uncritically embraced anything that suggests aliens, even when the accounts contradict each other. Pflock said, "[T]he case for Roswell is a classic example of the triumph of quantity over quality. The advocates of the crashed-saucer tale [...] simply shovel everything that seems to support their view into the box marked 'Evidence' and say, 'See? Look at all this stuff. We must be right.' Never mind the contradictions. Never mind the lack of independent supporting fact. Never mind the blatant absurdities."^[61] Korff suggests there are clear incentives for some people to promote the idea of aliens at Roswell, and that many researchers were not doing competent work: "[The] UFO field is comprised of people who are willing to take advantage of the gullibility of others, especially the paying public. Let's not pull any punches here: The Roswell UFO myth has been very good business for UFO groups, publishers, for Hollywood, the town of Roswell, the media, and UFOlogy [...] [The] number of researchers who employ science and its disciplined methodology is appallingly small."^[62]

Gildenberg and others^[who?] said there were as many as 11 reported alien recovery sites^[11] and these recoveries bore only a marginal resemblance to the event as initially reported in 1947, or as recounted later by the initial witnesses. Some of these new accounts could have been confused accounts of the several known recoveries of injured and dead servicemen from four military plane crashes that occurred in the area from 1948 to 1950.^[63] Other accounts could have been based on memories of recoveries of test dummies, as suggested by the Air Force in their reports. Charles Ziegler argued that the Roswell story has all the hallmarks of a traditional folk narrative. He identified six distinct narratives, and a process of transmission via storytellers with a core story that was created from various witness accounts, and was then shaped and molded by those who carry on the UFO community's tradition. Other "witnesses" were then sought out to expand the core narrative, with those who give accounts not in line with the core beliefs being repudiated or simply omitted by the "gatekeepers."^[64][65] Others then retold the narrative in its new form. This whole process would repeat over time.

Finally, critics have expressed profound frustration at the very notion that crashed saucers have been, as often claimed, repeatedly recovered—in the United States, U.S.S.R., Germany, and Iran, reportedly. One marvels that so many races of aliens—who are sufficiently ingenious to circumnavigate the galaxy—are so bumbling as routinely to crash on backwater Earth!

Roswellian Syndrome[edit]

Prominent skeptics Joe Nickell and co-author James McGaha identified the myth-making process, which they called the "Roswellian Syndrome".^[66] The authors used the Roswell event as an example, but pointed out that the same syndrome is readily observable in other reported UFO incidents. The authors identified five distinct stages of development of the Roswell myth:

Incident: The initial incident and reporting on July 8, 1947

Debunking: Soon after the initial reports, the mysterious object was identified as a weather balloon, later confirmed to be a balloon array from Project Mogul which had gone missing in flight.

Submergence: The news story ended with the identification of the weather balloon. However, the event lingered on in the ‘fading and recreative memories of some of those involved’. Rumor and speculation simmered just below the surface in Roswell and became part of the culture at large. In time, UFOlogists arrived, asked leading questions, and helped to spin a tale of crashed flying saucers and a government conspiracy to cover up the true nature of the event.

Mythologizing: After the story submerged, and, over time, reemerged, it developed into an ever-expanding and elaborate myth. The mythologizing process included exaggeration, faulty memory, folklore and deliberate hoaxing. The deliberate hoaxing was usually self-serving for personal gain or promotion (for example, the promotion of the 1950 sci-fi movie The Flying Saucer) and in turn fed the folklore.

Reemergence and Media Bandwagon Effect: Publication of books such as The Roswell Incident by Berlitz and Moore in 1980, television shows and other media coverage perpetuated the UFO crash story and cover-up conspiracy beliefs. Conspiracy beliefs typically mirror public sentiments towards the US government and oscillate along with those attitudes.

The authors predicted that the Roswellian Syndrome would "play out again and again",^[66] not only in the Roswell story, but also in other UFO and conspiracy-theory stories.

Developments since 1990s[edit]

Pro-UFO advocates dismiss Roswell incident[edit]

One of the immediate outcomes of the Air Force reports on the Roswell UFO incident was the decision by some prominent UFO researchers to view the Roswell incident as not involving an alien craft. While the initial Air Force report was a chief reason for this, another reason was the release of secret documents from 1948 that showed that top Air Force officials did not know what the UFO objects being reported in the media were, and their suspicion that the UFOs might be Soviet spy vehicles.

In January 1997, Karl T. Pflock, one of the more prominent pro-UFO researchers, said “Based on my research and that of others, I'm as certain as it's possible to be without absolute proof that no flying saucer or saucers crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell or on the Plains of San Agustin in 1947. The debris found by Mac Brazel...was the remains of something very earthly, all but certainly something from the Top Secret Project Mogul....The formerly highly classified record of correspondence and discussions among top Air Force officials who were responsible for cracking the flying saucer mystery from the mid-1940s through the early 1950s makes it crystal clear that they didn't have any crashed saucer wreckage or bodies of saucer crews, but they were desperate to have such evidence [...]"^[67]

Kent Jeffrey, who organized petitions to ask President Bill Clinton to issue an Executive order to declassify any government information on the Roswell incident, similarly concluded that no aliens were likely to have been involved.^[68][69]

William L. Moore, one of the earliest proponents of the Roswell incident as a UFO event, said this in 1997: "After deep and careful consideration of recent developments concerning Roswell...I am no longer of the opinion that the extraterrestrial explanation is the best explanation for this event." Moore was co-author of the first book on Roswell, The Roswell Incident.^[70]

In a podcast interview with Canadian filmmaker Paul Kimball released on August 25, 2013, Kevin Randle stated that while he still personally believed that an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashed in New Mexico, the evidence does not support that conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt. "We really can't get to the extraterrestrial," stated Randle. "We can eliminate practically everything else that you care to mention, but that still doesn't get us to the extraterrestrial."^[71]

Shoddy research revealed; witnesses suspected of hoaxes[edit]

Around the same time in the late 1990s, a serious rift developed between two prominent Roswell authors. Kevin D. Randleand Donald R. Schmitt had co-authored several books on the subject, and were generally acknowledged, along with Stanton Friedman, to be the leading researchers of the Roswell incident.^[48] The Air Force reports on the incident suggested that basic research that was claimed to have been carried out was not in fact carried out,^[72] a fact verified in a 1995 Omnimagazine article.^[73] Additionally, Schmitt claimed he had a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and was in the midst of pursuing a doctorate in criminology. He also claimed to be a medical illustrator. When checked, it was revealed he was in fact a letter carrier in Hartford, Wisconsin, and had no known academic credentials. At the same time, Randle publicly distanced himself from Schmitt and his research. Referring to Schmitt’s investigation of witness Dennis’s accounts of a missing nurse at the Roswell base, he said: "The search for the nurses proves that he [Schmitt] will lie about anything. He will lie to anyone ... He has revealed himself as a pathological liar [...] I will have nothing more to do with him."^[48]

Additionally, several prominent witnesses were shown to be perpetrating hoaxes, or suspected of doing so. Frank Kaufmann was a major source of alien reports in the 1994 Randle and Schmitt book The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell. He was the witness whose testimony it was charged was “ignored” by the Air Force when compiling their reports.^[74] However, after his 2001 death, he was shown to have been forging documents and inflating his role at Roswell. Randle and Mark Rodeigher repudiated Kaufmann’s credibility in two 2002 articles.^[75]

Glenn Dennis, who testified that Roswell alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base, and that he and others were the subjects of threats, was deemed one of the “least credible” Roswell witnesses by Randle in 1998. In Randle and Schmitt’s 1991 book UFO Crash at Roswell, Dennis’s story was featured prominently. Randle said Dennis was not credible “for changing the name of the nurse once we had proved she didn't exist.”^[76] Dennis’s accounts were also doubted by researcher Pflock.^[67]

Photo analysis; documentaries; new claims[edit]

UFO researcher David Rudiak, and others before him, claimed that a telegram which appears in one of the 1947 photos of balloon debris in Ramey's office contains text that confirms that aliens and a "disk" were found. Rudiak and some other examiners claim that when enlarged, the text on the paper General Ramey is apparently holding in his hand includes key phrases "the victims of the wreck" and "in/on the 'disc'" plus other phrases seemingly in the context of a crashed vehicle recovery.^[77] However, pro-UFO interpretations of this document are disputed by other photoanalyses, such as one facilitated by researcher James Houran, Ph.D.,^[78] which suggest that the letters and words are indistinct. Other objections question the plausibility of a general allowing himself to be photographed holding such a document, raise issues with the format of the memo, and ponder the logic of Ramey having in his possession a document he, as Rudiak argued, has supposedly sent, which says "...the wreck you forwarded..." and yet is supposedly addressed to the Headquarters of the Army Air Force in Washington, not the Roswell Army Air Field.^[79]

Enlargement of Gen. Ramey's held message in the original photo.

In 2002, the Sci-Fi Channel sponsored an excavation at the Brazel site, in the hopes of uncovering debris that the military failed to collect. Although these results have so far been negative, the University of New Mexico archaeological team did verify recent soil disruption at the exact location that some witnesses said they saw a long, linear impact groove. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who headed the United States Department of Energy under President Clinton, apparently found the results provocative. In 2004, he wrote in a foreword to The Roswell Dig Diaries, that "the mystery surrounding this crash has never been adequately explained—not by independent investigators, and not by the U.S. government."

On October 26, 2007, Richardson (who at the time was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. President) was asked about releasing government files on Roswell. Richardson responded that when he was a Congressman, he attempted to get information on behalf of his New Mexico constituents, but was told by both the Department of Defense and Los Alamos Labs that the information was classified. "That ticked me off," he said "The government doesn't tell the truth as much as it should on a lot of issues." He promised to work on opening the files if he were elected as President.^[80]

In October 2002, before airing its Roswell documentary, the Sci-Fi Channel hosted a Washington UFO news conference.John Podesta, President Clinton's chief of staff, appeared as a member of the public relations firm hired by Sci-Fi to help get the government to open up documents on the subject. Podesta stated, "It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the true nature of the phenomena."^[81]

In February 2005, the ABC TV network aired a UFO special hosted by news anchor Peter Jennings. Jennings lambasted the Roswell case as a "myth ... without a shred of evidence." ABC endorsed the Air Force's explanation that the incident resulted solely from the crash of a Project Mogul balloon.^{[citation needed]}

Top Secret/Majic (2005 edition)[edit]

Stanton T. Friedman continues to defend his view that the Majestic 12 (also known as Majic-12) documents, which describe a secret government agency hiding information on recovered aliens, are authentic. In an afterword dated April 2005 to a new edition of his book Top Secret/Majic (first published in 1996), he responds to more recent questions on their validity and concludes "I am still convinced Roswell really happened, [and] that the Eisenhower Briefing Document [i.e., Majestic 12] ... [and others] are the most important classified documents ever leaked to the public."^[82]

Witness to Roswell (2007)[edit]

In June 2007, Donald Schmitt and his investigation partner Tom Carey published their first book together, Witness to Roswell.^[83] In this book, they claim a "continuously growing roster of more than 600 people directly or indirectly associated with the events at Roswell who support the first account - that initial claim of the flying saucer recovery."^[84] New accounts of aliens or alien recoveries were described, including the account of Walter Haut, who wrote the initial press release in 1947.

A new date was suggested for the crash of a mysterious object—the evening of Thursday, July 3, 1947.^[85][86] Also, unlike previous accounts, Brazel took the debris to Corona, where he showed fragments to local residents in the local bar, hardware store, and elsewhere, and to Capitan to the south, where portions of the object ended up at a 4th of Julyrodeo.^[87] Numerous people are described as visiting the debris field and taking souvenirs before Brazel finally went to Roswell to report the find on July 6. Once the military was alerted to the debris, extensive efforts were undertaken to retrieve those souvenirs: "Ranch houses were and [sic] ransacked. The wooden floors of livestock sheds were pried loose plank by plank and underground cold storage fruit cellars were emptied of all their contents."^[88]

The subsequent events are related as per the sequence in previous books, except for a second recovery site of an alien body at the Foster ranch. This recovery near the debris field is the same site mentioned in 1991's UFO Crash at Roswell. The authors suggest that Brazel discovered the second site some days after finding the debris field, and this prompted him to travel to Roswell and report his find to the authorities.

Neither Barnett nor the archaeologists are reported to be present at this body site. While noting the earlier "major problems" with Barnett's account, which caused Schmitt and previous partner Randle to omit Barnett's claim in 1994's The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, the new book further notes another site mentioned in the 1994 publication. This site closer to Roswell "turned out to be bogus, as it was based upon the testimony of a single, alleged eyewitness [Frank Kaufmann] who himself was later discovered to have been a purveyor of false information."^[89] Jim Ragsdale, whose alien account opened that book and who was claimed to have been present along with some archaeologists, is not mentioned in the new book.

The 2007 book includes claims that Major Marcel saw alien bodies, a claim not present in previous books. Two witnesses are cited who say Marcel briefly mentioned seeing bodies, one a relative and another a Tech Sergeant who worked with Marcel's intelligence team.^[90]

Much additional new testimony is presented to support notions that alien bodies were found at the Foster ranch and at another main crash site along with a craft, then processed at the base in a hangar and at the hospital, and the bodies finally flown out in containers, all under very tight security. The book suggests Brazel found "two or three alien bodies" about two miles east of the debris field, and describes the rest of a stricken alien craft along with the remainder of the crew remaining airborne for some 30 more miles before crashing at another site about 40 miles north/northwest of Roswell (but not the same site described by Kaufmann). The authors claim to have located this final crash site in 2005 where "an additional two or three dead aliens and one live one were discovered by civilian archaeologists," but offer no more information about the new site.^[91]

Walter Haut, the Roswell Army Air Field public affairs officer, had drafted the initial press release which went out over the news wires on the afternoon of July 8, 1947, announcing a "flying disc". This was supposedly the only direct involvement Haut had in public statements and signed affidavits. The book presents a new affidavit that Haut signed in 2002 in which he claims much greater personal knowledge and involvement, including seeing alien corpses and craft, and involvement in a cover-up. Haut died in 2005.^[92]

Another new firsthand account from MP Elias Benjamin describes how he guarded aliens on gurneys taken to the Roswell base hospital from the same hangar.^[93] Similarly, family members of Miriam Bush, secretary to the chief medical officer at Roswell base, told of having been led into an examination room where alien corpses were laid out on gurneys.^[94] In both accounts, one of the aliens was said to be still alive. The book also recounted earlier testimony of the Anaya family about picking up New Mexico Lt. Governor Joseph Montoya at the base, and a badly shaken Montoya relating that he saw four alien bodies at the base hangar, one of them alive.^[95] Benjamin's and Bush's accounts, as do a few lesser ones, again place aliens at the Roswell base hospital, as had the Glenn Dennis story from almost 20 years before. The book notes that Dennis had been found to have told lies, and therefore is a supplier of unreliable testimony, but had nevertheless told others of incidents at the Roswell base long before it became associated with aliens in the late 1970s.^[96]

Walter Haut controversy[edit]

The 2007 publishing of the Walter Haut affidavit^[97][98] in Witness to Roswell, wherein Haut described a cover-up and seeing alien corpses, ignited a controversy in UFO circles.^[99] While many embraced Haut's accounts as confirmation of the presence of aliens from a person who was known to have been on the base in 1947, others raised questions about his credibility.

UFO researcher Dennis G. Balthaser, who along with fellow researcher Wendy Connors interviewed Haut on-camera in 2000, doubted that the same man he interviewed could have written the affidavit he signed. "[The 2000 video] shows a man that couldn't remember where he took basic training, names, dates, etc., while the 2002 affidavit is very detailed and precise with information Haut couldn't accurately remember 2 years after he was video taped."^[100] Witness to Roswell co-author Donald R. Schmitt, he notes, admitted that the affidavit was not written by Haut, but prepared for him to sign, based on statements Haut had made privately to Schmitt and co-author Tom Carey over a period of years.^[101] And further, notes Balthaser, neither he nor Carey were there when Haut signed the affidavit and the witness' name has not been revealed, casting doubt on the circumstances of the signing.

Balthaser had further questions about what he saw as problems with the 2002 account. If the cover-up was decided at a meeting at Roswell, he asked, "why was it necessary for Major Marcel to fly debris from Roswell to General Ramey’s office in Ft Worth, since they had all handled the debris in the meeting and apparently set up the cover-up operation?" He also wondered which Haut statements were true: a 1993 affidavit he signed, the 2000 video interview, or the 2002 affidavit.

Bill Birnes, writing for UFO Magazine, summarizes that whatever disagreements there are about the 2000 video and the 2002 affidavit, "I think Walter Haut's 2002 affidavit really says it all and agrees, on its material facts, with Walter's 2000 interview with Dennis Balthaser and Wendy Connors. Dennis said he agrees with me, too, on this point."^[102]

A comparison of the affidavit and interview shows that in both accounts Haut said he saw a craft and at least one body in a base hangar and also attended a Roswell staff meeting where General Ramey was present and where Ramey put a cover-up into place.^[103][104]

Birnes also says that Carey said that while Haut may not have written the affidavit, "his statements were typed, shown to him for his review and agreement, and then affirmed by him in the presence of a witness... The fact that a notary was present and sealed the document should end any doubt as to the reality of its existence."^[105]

Julie Shuster, Haut's daughter and Director of the International UFO Museum in Roswell, said that Schmitt had written the affidavit based on years of conversations he and Carey had had with him. Writing in the September 2007 MUFON newsletter, she said she and Haut reviewed the document, that "he did not want to make any changes," and in the presence of two witnesses, a notary public from the museum and a visitor, both unidentified, he signed the affidavit.^[106]

UFO FBI document release, 2011[edit]

The 2011 FBI document claiming to find "three so-called flying saucers"

In April 2011, the FBI posted a 1950 document from agent Guy Hottel which discussed a report by an investigator for the Air Forces (sic) of "three so-called flying saucers" and their occupants having been recovered in New Mexico.^[107] The document says:

Office Memorandum • United States Government

TO: DIRECTOR, FBI [and then across from it, right justified] DATE: March 22, 1950

FROM: GUY HOTTEL, SAC, WASHINGTON

SUBJECT: FLYING SAUCERS

INFORMATION CONCERNING

[Handwritten:]

Flying Discs or Flying Saucers

The following information was furnished to SA [redacted] by [two lines redacted].

An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.

According to Mr. [redacted] informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed that the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers.

No further evaluation was attempted by SA [redacted] concerning the above.

RHK:VIM

Though no dates are mentioned regarding the events, the memo has a typed date of March 22, 1950, and two differently-sized date stamps: one March 29, 1950 (larger, at bottom) and one March 28, 1950, the latter of which has a handwritten number above it: 62-838-94-209, the last part with "-209" being somewhat widely spaced from the former. (Other things are typed and handwritten on the copy of the memorandum that is included with this article.)

No location more specific than "New Mexico" is seen.

Some sources connected the memo to the Roswell UFO incident of 1947.^[108] Other sources said the memo had been in the public domain for years, and was revealed as a hoax as far back as 1952 in an article in True magazine.^[109] They said the hoax was perpetrated by several men who were peddling a device purported to be able to locate gold, oil, gas or anything their victims sought, based on supposed alien technology. The two men, Silas Newton and Leo A. Gebauer, were convicted of fraud in 1953.^[110]

In 2013, the FBI issued a press release regarding the memo. In addressing the memo's context, the Bureau wrote, "Finally, the Hottel memo does not prove the existence of UFOs; it is simply a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated. Some people believe the memo repeats a hoax that was circulating at that time, but the Bureau’s files have no information to verify that theory."^[111]

Area 51 (2011)[edit]

American journalist Annie Jacobsen's Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base (2011), based on interviews with scientists and engineers who worked in Area 51, dismisses the alien story. It suggested that Josef Mengele, a German Schutzstaffel officer and a physician in Auschwitz, was recruited by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to produce "grotesque, child-size aviators" to be remotely piloted and landed in America in order to cause hysteria similar toOrson Welles' War of the Worlds (1938). The aircraft, however, crashed and the incident was hushed up by the Americans.^{[citation needed]} Jacobsen wrote that the bodies found at the crash site were children around 12 years old with large heads and abnormally-shaped, over-sized eyes. They were neither aliens nor consenting airmen, but human guinea pigs.^[112] The book was criticized for extensive errors by scientists from the Federation of American Scientists.^[113]

See also[edit]

• List of reported UFO sightings

Notes[edit]

1. Jump up^ "Secret Air Force balloon crashes near Roswell, N.M. -- mistaken for UFO",http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/WSHist/Pages/ChronologyCowboystoV2stotheSpaceShuttletolasers.aspx
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b "United Press Teletype Messages". Roswell Proof. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
3. Jump up^ "Harassed Rancher who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About it".Roswell Daily Record. July 9, 1947. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Printy 1999, Chapter 2
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b "New Mexico 'Disc' Declared Weather Balloon and Kite". Los Angeles Examiner. Associated Press. July 9, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b "New Mexico Rancher's 'Flying Disk' Proves to be Weather Balloon-Kite". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. Front. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
7. Jump up^ "Harassed Rancher who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told about It".Roswell Daily Record. July 9, 1947. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Printy 1999, Chapter 6
9. Jump up^ "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region".Roswell Daily Record. July 8, 1947. p. Front. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
10. Jump up^ Printy 1999, Chapter 5
11. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j} Gildenberg, B.D. (2003). "A Roswell Requiem".Skeptic 10 (1): 60–73. ISSN 1063-9330.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b Korff, Kal (August 1997)."What Really Happened at Roswell". Skeptical Inquirer 21(4). Retrieved February 5, 2013.
13. Jump up^ "The Majestic 12 Papers – An Analysis". The Roswell Files. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
14. Jump up^ "Poll U.S. Hiding Knowledge of Aliens". CNN. June 15, 1997. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
15. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1991, p. 4
16. Jump up^ Korff 1997, pp. 1–264
17. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 28
18. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 79
19. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 83
20. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 88–89
21. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 33
22. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 67–69
23. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 42
24. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 75,88
25. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 75
26. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 21–22
27. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 25–27
28. ^ Jump up to:^a b Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 53–62
29. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 92–103
30. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 63
31. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 65
32. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 67
33. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, p. 40
34. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1991, pp. 49–54
35. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1991, p. 200
36. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1991, p. 206
37. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1991, pp. 231–234
38. ^ Jump up to:^a b Randle 1995, pp. 1–190
39. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, p. ix
40. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, pp. 79–90
41. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, pp. 90–97
42. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, p. 206
43. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, p. 89
44. Jump up^ Friedman & Berliner 1992, p. 129
45. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1994, pp. 3–11
46. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1994, p. 155
47. Jump up^ Randle & Schmitt 1994, p. 187
48. ^ Jump up to:^a b c "Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt". The Roswell Files. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
49. ^ Jump up to:^a b Saler, Ziegler & Moore 1997, pp. 24–25
50. Jump up^ Osborn, Michael (April 5, 2006)."Ant and Dec Leap into the Unknown". BBC News (BBC). Retrieved February 6, 2013.
51. Jump up^ "Max Headroom Creator Made Roswell Alien". The Sunday Times. April 16, 2006. Archived fromthe original on May 22, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
52. Jump up^ Saler, Ziegler & Moore 1997, pp. 1–198
53. Jump up^ Korff 1997, p. 29
54. ^ Jump up to:^a b Pflock 2001, pp. 176–177
55. Jump up^ Korff 1997, pp. 77–81
56. Jump up^ Korff 1997, pp. 86–104
57. Jump up^ Korff 1997, pp. 107–108
58. Jump up^ Pflock 2001, p. 118
59. Jump up^ Berlitz & Moore 1980, pp. 1–168
60. Jump up^ Todd, Robert (December 8, 1995)."Jesse Marcel: Folk Hero or Mythomaniac". The KowPflop Quarterly 1 (3): 1–4.
61. Jump up^ Pflock 2001, p. 223
62. Jump up^ Korff 1997, p. 248
63. Jump up^ Printy 1999, Chapter 17
64. Jump up^ Saler, Ziegler & Moore 1997, p. 1
65. Jump up^ Saler, Ziegler & Moore 1997, pp. 34–37
66. ^ Jump up to:^a b Nickell, Joe; McGaha, James (May–June 2012). "The Roswellian Syndrome: How Some UFO Myths Develop". Skeptical Inquirer(Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) 36(3). Retrieved February 6, 2013.
67. ^ Jump up to:^a b Klass, Philip (January 1, 1997). "The Klass Files". The Skeptics UFO Newsletter (The Committee for Skeptical Injury) 43. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
68. Jump up^ Klass, Philip (March 1, 1997)."The Klass Files". The Skeptics UFO Newsletter (The Committee for Skeptical Injury) 44. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
69. Jump up^ Jeffrey, Kent. "Kent Jeffrey Anatomy of a Myth". The Roswell Files. p. 1. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
70. Jump up^ Klass, Philip (September 1, 1997)."The Klass Files". The Skeptics UFO Newsletter (The Committee for Skeptical Injury) 47. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
71. Jump up^ Randle, Kevin. "Roswell Revisited". The Other Side of Truth. Kimball Media. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
72. Jump up^ Weaver & McAndrew 1995^{[page needed]}
73. Jump up^ McCarthy, Paul. "The Missing Nurses of Roswell". The Roswell Files. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
74. Jump up^ Rodeghier, Mark. "The Center for UFO Studies Response to the Air Force's 1997 Report The Roswell Report: Case Closed". Center for UFO Studies. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
75. Jump up^ "Roswell Case Studies". Center for UFO Studies. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
76. Jump up^ "Kevin Randle of the UK-UFO-NW #UFO Channel". Center for UFO Studies. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
77. Jump up^ "Reconstructed July 8, 1947 Gen. Ramey Roswell Message". Roswell Proof. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
78. Jump up^ Houran, James (2002). "'A Message in a Bottle:' Confounds in Deciphering the Ramey Memo from the Roswell UFO Case". Journal of Scientific Exploration 16 (1): 45–66. ISSN 0892-3310.
79. Jump up^ Printy, Thomas (August 2003)."The Ramey Document: Smoking Gun or Empty Water Pistol?". Thomas Printy. Retrieved February 6, 2003.
80. Jump up^ Slater, Wayne (October 27, 2007)."On Texas stop, Democratic Candidate Richardson Criticizes Government Secrecy". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
81. Jump up^ Stenger, Richard (October 22, 2002). "Clinton Aide Slams Pentagon's UFO Secrecy". CNN. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
82. Jump up^ Friedman 2005, pp. 1–282
83. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 1–256
84. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, p. 38
85. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, p. 21
86. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, p. 127
87. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 48–49
88. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, p. 51
89. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 126–127
90. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 79–80
91. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 127–128
92. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 215–217
93. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 136–140
94. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 119–123
95. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, pp. 83–92
96. Jump up^ Carey & Schmitt 2007, p. 135
97. Jump up^ "Roswell Theory Revived by Deathbed Confession". The Sunday Telegraph. July 1, 2007. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
98. Jump up^ Haut, Walter (July 2, 2007). "2002 Sealed Affidavit of Walter Haut". UFO Digest. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
99. Jump up^ Warren, Frank (July 24, 2007)."New Revelations on Haut Affidavit". The UFO Chronicles. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
100. Jump up^ Balthaser, Dennis (October 1, 2007). "Searching for the Truth". UFO Digest. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
101. Jump up^ "July 22, 2007 – Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt". The Paracast. Making the Impossible. July 22, 2007. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
102. Jump up^ Birnes, Bill (August 14, 2007)."Dennis, Tom, and Jesse ...".UFO Magazine. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
103. Jump up^ "Walter Hunts's 2000 Interview". Roswell Proof. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
104. Jump up^ "Lt. Walter G. Hunt". Roswell Proof. January 5, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
105. Jump up^ Birnes, Bill (August 13, 2007)."The Affidavit, the Interview, and the Affidavit". UFO Magazine. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
106. Jump up^ Schuster, Julie (September 2007)."Haut's Daughter Tells How Affidavit Came to Be". Mutual UFO Network (473): 15. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
107. Jump up^ "Guy Hottel Part 1 of 1" (PDF).Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
108. Jump up^ Malkin, Bonnie (April 11, 2011)."'Exploding UFOs and Alien Landings' in Secret FBI Files".The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
109. Jump up^ Broadbent, Stephen (February 5, 2009). "Play It Again, Scam". Reality Uncovered. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
110. Jump up^ FBI "Hottel Memo" Reveals UFO Hoax - International Business Times
111. Jump up^ "UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation. 25 March 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
112. Jump up^ Harding, Thomas (May 13, 2011)."Roswell 'was Soviet plot to create US panic'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
113. Jump up^ Norris, Robert; Richelson, Jeffrey (July 11, 2011). "Dreamland Fantasies". Washington Decoded. Retrieved February 6, 2013.

References[edit]

• Berlitz, Charles; Moore, William (1980). The Roswell Incident. Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 9780448211992.
• Carey, Thomas; Schmitt, Donald (2007). Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the 60-Year Cover-Up. New Page Books.ISBN 9781564149435.
• Friedman, Stanton; Berliner, Don (1992). Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of a UFO. Paragon House. ISBN 9781557784490.
• Korff, Kal (1997). The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don't Want You to Know. Prometheus Books.ISBN 9781573921275.
• Pflock, Karl (2001). Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9781573928946.
• Printy, Timothy (1999). Roswell 4F: Fabrications, Fumbled Facts, and Fables. Timothy Printy. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
• Randle, Kevin (1995). Roswell UFO Crash Update: Exposing the Military Cover-Up of the Century. Global Communications. ISBN 9780938294412.
• Randle, Kevin; Schmitt, Donald (1991). UFO Crash at Roswell. Avon Books. ISBN 9780380761968.
• Randle, Kevin; Schmitt, Donald (1994). The truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell. M Evans. ISBN 9780871317612.
• Saler, Benson; Ziegler, Charles; Moore, Charles (1997). UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 9781560987512.
• Friedman, Stanton (2005). Top Secret/MAJIC : Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-Up. Marlowe & Co. ISBN 9781569243428.
• Weaver, Richard; McAndrew, James (1995). The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. United States Air Force. ISBN 9781428994928.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roswell UFO incident.

• Original Guy Hottel Statement
• The Amazing Roswell UFO Festival
• Walker Air Force Base at Roswell online museum
• Carey, Tom, and Schmitt, Don. UFOlogy Resource Center: The Roswell Report, via SciFi.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2004.

Aurora (aircraft)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Canadian maritime patrol aircraft, see Lockheed CP-140 Aurora.

Aurora
An artist's conception of the Aurora aircraft

Aurora was a rumored mid-1980s American reconnaissance aircraft. There is no substantial evidence that it was ever built or flown and it has been termed amyth.^[1][2]

The U.S. government has consistently denied such an aircraft was ever built. Aviation and space reference site Aerospaceweb.org concluded "The evidence supporting the Aurora is circumstantial or pure conjecture, there is little reason to contradict the government's position."^[1]

Others come to different conclusions.^[3] In 2006, veteran black project watcher and aviation writer Bill Sweetman said, "Does Aurora exist? Years of pursuit have led me to believe that, yes, Aurora is most likely in active development, spurred on by recent advances that have allowed technology to catch up with the ambition that launched the program a generation ago."^[4]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Background
• 2 Evidence
  • 2.1 British sighting claims
  • 2.2 American sighting claims
  • 2.3 Additional claims
• 3 See also
• 4 References
• 5 Bibliography
• 6 External links

Background[edit]

The Aurora legend started in March 1990, when Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine broke the news that the term "Aurora" had been inadvertently included in the 1985 U.S. budget, as an allocation of $455 million for "black aircraft production" in FY 1987.^[5] According to Aviation Week, Project Aurora referred to a group of exotic aircraft, and not to one particular airframe. Funding of the project allegedly reached $2.3 billion in fiscal 1987, according to a 1986 procurement document obtained by Aviation Week. In the 1994 book Skunk Works, Ben Rich, the former head of Lockheed's Skunk Works division, wrote that the Aurora was the budgetary code name for the stealth bomber fly-off that resulted in the B-2 Spirit.^[6]

Evidence[edit]

By the late 1980s, many aerospace industry observers believed that the U.S. had the technological capability to build a Mach-5 replacement for the aging Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Detailed examinations of the U.S. defense budget claimed to have found money missing or channeled into black projects.^[7] By the mid-1990s, reports surfaced of sightings of unidentified aircraft flying over California and the United Kingdom involving odd-shaped contrails, sonic booms and related phenomena that suggested the US had developed such an aircraft. Nothing ever linked any of these observations to any program or aircraft type, but the name Aurora was often tagged on these as a way of explaining the observations.^[1]

British sighting claims[edit]

In late August 1989, while working as an engineer on the jack-up barge GSF Galveston Key in the North Sea, Chris Gibson and another witness saw an unfamiliar isosceles triangle-shaped delta aircraft, apparently refueling from a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and accompanied by a pair of F-111 fighter-bombers. Gibson and his friend watched the aircraft for several minutes, until they went out of sight. He subsequently drew a sketch of the formation.

Gibson, who had been in the Royal Observer Corps' trophy-winning international aircraft recognition team since 1980, was unable to identify the aircraft. He dismissed suggestions that the aircraft was an F-117, Mirage IV or fully swept wing F-111.^[8] When the sighting was made public in 1992, the British Defence Secretary Tom King was told, "There is no knowledge in the MoD of a 'black' programme of this nature, although it would not surprise the relevant desk officers in the Air Staff and Defence Intelligence Staff if it did exist."^[9]

A crash at RAF Boscombe Down on 26 September 1994 appeared closely linked to "black" missions, according to a report in AirForces Monthly. Further investigation was hampered by aircraft from the USAF flooding into the base. The crash site was protected from view by firetrucks and tarpaulins and the base was closed to all flights soon after.^[10]

American sighting claims[edit]

A series of unusual sonic booms was detected in Southern California, beginning in mid- to late-1991 and recorded by U.S. Geological Survey sensors across Southern California used to pinpoint earthquake epicenters. The sonic booms were characteristic of a smaller vehicle rather than the 37-meter long Space Shuttle orbiter. Furthermore, neither the Shuttle norNASA's single SR-71B was operating on the days the booms had been registered.^[11] In the article, "In Plane Sight?" which appeared in the Washington City Paper on 3 July 1992 (pp. 12–13), one of the seismologists, Jim Mori, noted: "We can't tell anything about the vehicle. They seem stronger than other sonic booms that we record once in a while. They've all come on Thursday mornings about the same time, between 4 and 7."^[5] Former NASA sonic boom expert Dom Maglieri studied the 15-year old sonic boom data from the California Institute of Technology and has deemed that the data showed "something at 90,000 ft (c. 27.4 km), Mach 4 to Mach 5.2". He also said the booms did not look like those from aircraft that had traveled through the atmosphere many miles away at LAX, rather, they appeared to be booms from a high-altitude aircraft directly above the ground moving at high speeds.^[12] The boom signatures of the two different aircraft patterns are wildly different.^[4]There was nothing particular to tie these events to any aircraft, but they served to grow the Aurora legend.

On 23 March 1992, near Amarillo, Texas, Steven Douglass photographed the "donuts on a rope" contrail and linked this sighting to distinctive sounds. He described the engine noise as: "strange, loud pulsating roar... unique... a deep pulsating rumble that vibrated the house and made the windows shake... similar to rocket engine noise, but deeper, with evenly timed pulses." In addition to providing the first photographs of the distinctive contrail previously reported by many, the significance of this sighting was enhanced by Douglass' reports of intercepts of radio transmissions: "Air-to-air communications... were between an AWACS aircraft with the call sign "Dragnet 51" from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, and two unknown aircraft using the call signs "Darkstar November" and "Darkstar Mike". Messages consisted of phonetically transmitted alphanumerics. It is not known whether this radio traffic had any association with the "pulser" that had just flown over Amarillo." ("Darkstar" is also a call sign of AWACS aircraft from a different squadron at Tinker AFB)^[13] A month later, radio enthusiasts in California monitoring Edwards AFB Radar (callsign "Joshua Control") heard early morning radio transmissions between Joshua and a high flying aircraft using the callsign "Gaspipe". "You're at 67,000 feet, 81 miles out" was heard, followed by "70 miles out now, 36,000 ft, above glideslope." As in the past, nothing linked these observations to any particular aircraft or program, but the attribution to the Aurora helped expand the legend.

In February 1994 former resident of Rachel, Nevada, and Area 51 enthusiast, Chuck Clark claimed to have filmed the Aurora taking off from the Groom Lake facility. In the David Darlington book "Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles" he said:

I even saw the Aurora take off one night - or an aircraft that matched the Aurora's reputed configuration, a sharp delta with twin tails about a hundred and thirty feet long. It taxied out of a lighted hangar at two-thirty A.M. and used a lot of runway to take off. It had one red light on top, but the minute the wheels left the runway, the light went off and that was the last I saw of it. I didn't hear it because the wind was blowing from behind me toward the base." I asked when this had taken place. "February 1994. Obviously they didn't think anybody was out there. It was thirty below zero - probably ninety below with the wind chill factor. I had hiked into White Sides from a different, harder way than usual, and stayed there two or three days among the rocks, under a camouflage tarp with six layers of clothes on. I had an insulated face mask and two sleeping bags, so I didn't present a heat signature. I videotaped the aircraft through a telescope with a five-hundred-millimeter f4 lens coupled via a C-ring to a high-eight digital video camera with five hundred and twenty scan lines of resolution, which is better than TV." The author then asked "Where's the tape?" Locked away. That's a legitimate spyplane; my purpose is not to give away legitimate national defense. When they get ready to unveil it, I'll probably release the tape.^[14]

Additional claims[edit]

In the controversial claims of Bob Lazar, he states that during his employment at the mysterious S-4 facility in Nevada, he briefly witnessed an Aurora flight while aboard a bus near Groom Lake. He claimed that there was a "tremendous roar" which sounded almost as if "the sky was tearing." Although Lazar only saw the aircraft for a moment through the front of the bus, he described it as being "very large" and having "two huge, square exhausts with vanes in them." Upon speaking with his supervisor, Lazar claims he was informed that the aircraft was indeed an "Aurora," a "high altitude research plane." He was also told that the aircraft was powered by "liquid methane."^[15]

By 1996 reports associated with the Aurora name dropped off in frequency, suggesting to people who believed that the aircraft existed that it had only ever been a prototype or that it had had a short service life.^[1]

In 2000, Aberdeen Press and Journal writer Nic Outterside wrote a piece on US stealth technology in Scotland. Citing confidential 'sources' he alleged RAF/USAF Machrihanish in Kintyre, Argyll to be a base for Aurora aircraft. Machrihanish's almost two-mile-long long runway makes it suitable for high-altitude and experimental aircraft with the fenced-off coastal approach making it ideal for takeoffs and landings to be made well away from eyes or cameras of press and public. 'Oceanic Air Traffic Control at Prestwick' Outterside says, 'also tracked fast-moving radar blips. It was claimed by staff that a "hypersonic jet was the only rational conclusion" for the readings.'^[16]

In 2006, aviation writer Bill Sweetman put together 20 years of examining budget "holes", unexplained sonic booms, along with the Gibson sighting and concluded: "This evidence helps establish the program's initial existence. My investigations continue to turn up evidence that suggests current activity. For example, having spent years sifting through military budgets, tracking untraceable dollars and code names, I learned how to sort out where money was going. This year, when I looked at the Air Force operations budget in detail, I found a $9-billion black hole that seems a perfect fit for a project like Aurora."^[4]

In February and March of 2014, an aircraft matching this description was photographed multiple times over Kansas and Texas in daylight. In February 2014, an amateur photographer Jeff Templin snapped pictures of a triangular aircraft while photographing wildlife in Kansas.^[17] On Mar 10, 2014 Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett photographed a triangular shaped aircraft giving off a long contrail over Amarillo, Texas during daylight. Bill Sweetman, Graham Warwick, and Guy Norris of Aviation Week all agree that "the photos show something real."^[18]

See also[edit]

• Ayaks
• Black triangle (UFO)
• Blackstar (spaceplane)
• Lockheed Martin SR-72
• TR-3 Black Manta

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d "Aurora, Strategic Reconnaissance."AerospaceWeb.org. Retrieved: 17 October 2010.
2. Jump up^ "Aurora Myth." Aerospace Daily, 9 October 1990, p. 34.
3. Jump up^ "Evidence Points to Stealth Spy Plane." High Technology Business, April 1988, pp. 8–9.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Sweetman, Bill. "Secret Warplanes of Area 51."Popular Science, 4 June 2006. Retrieved: 1 October 2006.
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Aurora Timeline." aemann.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk,29 September 2006 via webarchive. Retrieved: 17 October 2010.
6. Jump up^ Rich and Janos 1996, pp. 309–310.
7. Jump up^ "Skunk Works Revenues Point to Active Aurora Program, Kemper Says." Aerospace Daily, 17 July 1992, p. 102.
8. Jump up^ Gray, Simon. "Chris Gibson's Aurora Sighting (1989)."abovetopsecret.com, 21 June 2004. Retrieved: 17 October 2010.
9. Jump up^ Randerson, James. "Is it a bird? Is it a spaceship? No, it's a secret US spy plane." The Guardian, 24 June 2006. Retrieved: 17 October 2010.
10. Jump up^ "RAF Boscombe Down's Black Day."dreamlandresort.com. Retrieved: 22 January 2011.
11. Jump up^ "Aurora." area51zone.com, 29 September 2006.
12. Jump up^ Sweetman, Bill. "Boom, Why Does O.C. Go Boom?"Aviation Weekly, 29 November 2010. Retrieved: 22 December 2010.
13. Jump up^ Aviation Week & Space Technology, 11 May 1992, pp. 62–63.
14. Jump up^ Darlington, David. "Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles". New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. 1997. ISBN 0-8050-4777-8.
15. Jump up^ "Bob Lazar Speaks Publicly About Area 51". youtube.Retrieved: 22 December 2010.
16. Jump up^ "Project Aurora - Latest U.S. Stealth Technology Moves To Western Scotland"
17. Jump up^ "Texas mystery aircraft also photographed over Kansas". Deep Blue Horizon Blogspot, 17 April 2014. Retrieved: 19 April 2014.
18. Jump up^ "Mystery Aircraft Over Texas". Aviation Week, 28 March 2014. Retrieved: 19 April 2014.

Bibliography[edit]

• DeBrosse, Jim. "Unusual vapor trail causes speculation". Dayton Daily News, 8 January 2007. Retrieved: 29 April 2010.
• Peebles, Curtis. Dark Eagles: A History of Top Secret U.S. Aircraft Programs. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1999. ISBN 0-89141-623-4.
• Rich, Ben R. and Leo Janos. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1996, First edition 1994. ISBN 0-316-74300-3.
• Rose, Bill. Secret Projects: Military Space Technology. Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-85780-296-2.
• Sweetman, Bill. "Aurora – is Mach 5 a reality?" Interavia Aerospace Review, November 1990, pp. 1019–1010.
• Sweetman, Bill. Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane. St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1993. ISBN 0-87938-780-7.
• "UFO files: secret US spy plane Aurora could be behind sightings". The Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2009. Retrieved: 29 April 2010.
• Yenne, Bill. "Chapter 10: Stealth Aircraft", in Secret Weapons of the Cold War: From the H-Bomb to SDI. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0-425-20149-X.
• Cenciotti, David. "B-2 Spirit or new mysterious stealth plane? New image of triangular shaped plane emerges". The Aviationist, 17 April 2014. Retrieved: 19 April 2014.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aurora (aircraft).

• Aurora - Secret Hypersonic Spyplane with link to the fireball/contrail video at the bottom of page 5
• Mystery Aircraft - Aurora / Senior Citizen article by the Federation of American Scientists
• Aurora at DMOZ

Black triangle (UFO)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about UFOs. For other uses, see black triangle (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

An artist's concept of a black triangle object.

Black triangles are a class of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, with certain common features which have reportedly been observed during the 20th and 21st centuries. Media reports of black triangles originally came from the United States and United Kingdom. ^[1] The aircraft may be related to the rumoredUSAF Aurora aircraft developmental program.

Reports generally describe this class of UFOs as large, silent, black triangular objects hovering or slowly cruising at low altitudes over cities and highways. Sightings usually take place at night. These objects are often described as having pulsing colored lights that appear at each corner of the triangle.^[2]

Black triangle UFOs have been reported to be visible to radar, as was the case with the famous Belgian UFO wave. During these incidents, two Belgian F-16sattempted to intercept the objects (getting a successful missile lock at two occasions) only to be outmaneuvered; a key conclusion of the Project Condignreport was that no attempt should be made on the part of civilian or RAF Air Defence aircraft to outmaneuver these objects except to place them astern to mitigate the risk of collision. ^[3]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 UK Ministry of Defence Report Findings
• 2 Other Sightings
  • 2.1 2014 Kansas & Texas sightings
  • 2.2 Rendlesham Forest incident
  • 2.3 Belgian Air Force report
  • 2.4 Phoenix Lights incident
  • 2.5 Southern Illinois incident
• 3 References
• 4 External links

UK Ministry of Defence Report Findings[edit]

UAP Formation of the Triangle Type^[4]

Declassified research (subject to a Freedom of Information request) from theUK Ministry of Defence report UAP in the UK Air Defence Region,^[5] code named Project Condign and released to the public in 2006, draws several conclusions as to the origin of "black triangle" UFO sightings. Their researchers conclude that most, if not all, "black triangle" UFOs are formations of electrical plasma, the interaction of which creates mysterious energy fields that bothrefract light and produce vivid hallucinations in witnesses that are in close proximity. Further it suggests that "the majority, if not all, of the hitherto unexplained reports may well be due to atmospheric gaseous electrically charged buoyant plasmas" ^[6] which emit charged fields with the capability of inducing vivid hallucinations and psychological effects in witnesses and are "capable of being transported at enormous speeds under the influence and balance of electrical charges in the atmosphere." The researchers note that plasmas may be formed by more than one set of weather and electrically charged conditions, while "at least some" events are likely to be triggered by meteor re-entry in scenarios where meteors neither burn up completely nor impact, but rather break up in the atmosphere to form such a charged plasma. These plasma formations are also theorized to have the effect of refracting light between themselves, producing the appearance of a black polygonal shape with the lights at the corners caused by self-generated plasma coloration (similar to the Aurora Borealis). ^[2]

The report states: "Occasionally and perhaps exceptionally, it seems that a field with, as yet, undetermined characteristics, can exist between certain charged buoyant objects in loose formation, such that, depending on the viewing aspect, the intervening space between them forms an area (viewed as a shape, often triangular) from which the reflection of light does not occur. This is a key finding in the attribution of what have frequently been reported as black 'craft,' often triangular and even up to hundreds of feet in length." These plasma formations also have the effect through "magnetic, electric or electromagnetic (or even unknown field), appears to emanate from some of the buoyant charged masses. Local fields of this type have been medically proven to cause responses in the temporal lobes of the human brain. These result in the observer sustaining his or her own vivid, but mainly incorrect, description of what is experienced. This is suggested to be a key factor in influencing the more extreme reports found in the media and are clearly believed by the 'victims.'^[7]

Recently un-redacted sections of the report state that Russian, Former Soviet Republics, and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UAP topic and that Russian investigators have measured (or at least detected) 'fields' which are reported to have caused human effects when they are located close to the phenomena. According to the Ministry of Defence researchers, Russian scientists have connected their UAP work with plasmas and the wider potential use of plasmas and may have done "considerably more work (than is evident from open sources)" on military applications, for example using UAP -type radiated fields to affect humans, and the possibility of producing and launching plasmas as decoys. ^[8]

On March 30, 1993 multiple witnesses across south-west and west England saw a large black triangle at low speeds. Analysis of the sightings by Nick Pope concluded that the object moved in a north-easterly course from Cornwall to Shropshire over a period of approximately 6 hours.

The sightings report clearly visible objects over densely populated areas and highways, mostly in the United States and Britain, but other parts of the world as well. A geographic distribution of U.S. sightings has been correlated by a currently inactive American-based investigative organization, the National Institute for Discovery Science, which led to a July 2002 report which suggested that the craft may belong to the U.S. Air Force;^[9] however, a subsequent report in August 2004 by the same organization (NIDS) found that the rash of sightings did not conform to previous deployment of black project aircraft and that the objects' origins and agendas were unknown.^[10]

Other Sightings[edit]

2014 Kansas & Texas sightings[edit]

In February and March of 2014, an aircraft matching the black triangle description was photographed multiple times over Kansas and Texas in daylight. In February 2014, an amateur photographer Jeff Templin snapped pictures of a triangular aircraft while photographing wildlife in Kansas.^[11] On Mar 10, 2014 Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett photographed a triangular shaped aircraft giving off a long contrail over Amarillo, Texas during daylight. Bill Sweetman, Graham Warwick, and Guy Norris of Aviation Week all agree that "the photos show something real." ^[12]

Rendlesham Forest incident[edit]

Main article: Rendlesham Forest incident

A pyramid-shaped craft was reported to have landed near an American air base at Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England on December 27, 1980. Military personnel reported having approached at least one landed craft in the forest and observed it in great detail before it once again took flight. Another craft was observed landing in an open field near the base and then taking off at incredible speed. Between 2002 and 2005, reporter Bryant Gumbel hosted a series of exclusive SciFi Channeldocumentaries, one of which, entitled UFO Invasion at Rendlesham, focused on this incident. Gumbel interviewed some of the men involved with the sighting, and the documentary toured some of the scenes, attempting to gather evidence that something landed in the forest. The History Channel also aired an episode of UFO Files on the incident, calling it "Britain'sRoswell".

Four US military personnel went to investigate what they believed to be a possible downed aircraft in the forest when they saw unexplained lights; they then saw a series of lights whilst in the forest. Only one of four personnel who went to investigate the lights claimed to have actually seen an actual craft, but this account emerged some time after in the initial incident, causing issues with its veracity and reliability. In particular, the craft was not witnessed by the three others who went with him that night. Natural phemomena such as a nearby lighthouse and barking Muntjac deer have been offered as explanations for what was seen and heard. MoD papers on the subject say nothing occurred that night which was of concern to British airspace security.

Belgian Air Force report[edit]

Main article: Belgian UFO wave

On March 30, 1990, citizens of the city of Eupen spotted what appeared to be a large black triangular craft hovering silently over the city for several minutes. Local police officials arrived on the scene and reported observing the object as it appeared to hover over apartment buildings. One officer reported that the object released a red glowing disk of light from its center which flew down to the ground and darted around several buildings before disappearing.^{[citation needed]}

Phoenix Lights incident[edit]

Main article: Phoenix Lights

One of the more famous appearances of these craft was during the event known as the "Phoenix Lights", where multiple unidentified objects, many of them black triangles, were spotted by the residents of Phoenix, Arizona and videotaped by both the local media and residents with camcorders across multiple evenings beginning on Thursday, March 13, 1997. Some lights drifted as low as 1000 feet and moved far too slowly for conventional aircraft and too silently for helicopters. Some of the lights appeared to group up in a giant "V" formation that lingered above the city for several minutes. Many residents reported one triangle to be over a mile wide that drifted slowly over their houses blocking out the stars of the night sky. Other reports indicated the craft were spotted flying away from Phoenix as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California.

An official report made by the Air Force about the incident concluded that the military had been testing flares launched from conventional aircraft during that time. Eyewitnesses confirmed military jets were scrambled from nearby Luke Air Force Base, but instead of launching flares, they were seen chasing after some of the objects.

The next few nights, in an attempt to recreate the incident, local pilots flew prop-planes over the city in a "V" formation, but the sounds of their engines were easily heard. The original lights made no sound. Flares were also deployed above Phoenix.

Southern Illinois incident[edit]

The "St. Clair Triangle", "UFO Over Illinois", "Southern Illinois UFO", or "Highland, Illinois UFO" sighting occurred on January 5, 2000 over the towns of Highland, Dupo, Lebanon, Summerfield, Millstadt, and O'Fallon, Illinois, beginning shortly after 4:00 am. Five on-duty police officers around these locales, along with various other eye-witnesses, sighted and reported a massive, silent, triangular craft operating at an unusual treetop level altitude and speeds. The incident was examined in various television shows including the ABC special Seeing is Believing with Peter Jennings, an hour-long Discovery Channelspecial UFOs Over Illinois, an episode of the Syfy series Proof Positive and a half-hour-long independent documentary titledThe Edge of Reality: Illinois UFO, January 5, 2000 by Darryl Barker Productions.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region: Executive Summary". Retrieved 2011-09-13.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Page 7". Mod.uk. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
3. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Page 11". Mod.uk. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
4. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Page 1". Mod.uk. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
5. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region". Mod.uk. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
6. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Volume 3 Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Page 2" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-09-13.
7. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Pages 7-8". Mod.uk. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
8. Jump up^ "UAP In the UK Air Defence Region: Volume 3 Executive Summary, Defence Intelligence Staff (2000), Page 3" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-09-13.
9. Jump up^ "David, L. 2004, Sept. "Flying Triangle" sightings on the rise, MSNBC".
10. Jump up^ "NIDS Report August 2004". Archived from the original on 2007-10-19. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
11. Jump up^ "Texas mystery aircraft also photographed over Kansas". Deep Blue Horizon Blogspot, 17 April 2014. Retrieved: 19 April 2014.
12. Jump up^ "Mystery Aircraft Over Texas". Aviation Week, 28 March 2014. Retrieved: 19 April 2014.

External links[edit]

• Summary of the Black Triangle UFO phenomenon at Space.com
• UAP In the UK Air Defence Region Full Text (PDF)
• Treatise on Black Triangle UFO Sightings
• Mysterious Dudley Dorito UFO spotted over UK skies for the third time in three years, Daily Mail, 11/17/2010

[hide] v t e UFOs and ufology Index of ufology articles Incidents General Aircraft–UFO incidents Sightings in outer space Pre-20th century Ezekiel's Wheel (circa 622–570 BC) José Bonilla Observation (1883) Aurora (1897) 20th century Hopeh (1942) Los Angeles (1942) Chengdu (1947) Kenneth Arnold (1947) Maury Island (1947) Roswell (1947) Aztec (1948) Mantell (1948) Laredo (1948) Chiles-Whitted (1948) Gorman Dogfight (1948) Mariana (1950) McMinnville photographs (1950) Lubbock Lights (1951) Carson Sink (1952) Nash-Fortenberry (1952) Washington (1952) Ellsworth (1953) Kelly–Hopkinsville (1955) Lakenheath-Bentwaters (1956) Fort Itaipu (1957) Antônio Vilas Boas (1957) Levelland (1957) Milton Torres (1957) Trindade Island (1958) Betty and Barney Hill abduction (1961) Lonnie Zamora incident (1964) Solway Firth Spaceman (1964) Exeter (1965) Kecksburg (1965) Portage County (1966) Westall (1966) Shag Harbour (1967) Pascagoula Abduction (1973) Coyame (1974) Charlie Redstar (1975-1976) Allagash (1976) Tehran (1976) Petrozavodsk phenomenon (1977) Valentich disappearance (1978) Robert Taylor incident (1979) Val Johnson incident (1979) Cash-Landrum incident (1980) Rendlesham Forest (1980) Trans-en-Provence (1981) Japan Air Lines (1986) Voronezh UFO incident (1989) Belgian UFO wave (1990) Meng Zhaoguo incident (1994) Varginha (1996) Phoenix Lights (1997) 21st century Bonsall (2000) Mexico (2004) Tinley Park Lights (2004–2006) O'Hare Airport (2006) Alderney (2007) Dudley (2007–2008) Stephenville (2008) Turkey (2008) Wales (2008) Norway (2009) Harbour Mille (2010) Vancouver, Washington (2011) Sightings by country Argentina Australia Belarus Belgium Brazil Canada China France India Indonesia Iran Iraq Italy Mexico New Zealand Norway Philippines Portugal Russia South Africa Spain (Canary Islands) Sweden United Kingdom United States Types of UFOs Black triangle Fastwalkers Flying saucer Foo fighter Ghost rockets Green fireballs Mystery airship Types of aliens Alleged UFO-related entities Energy beings Grey aliens Insectoids Little green men Nordic aliens Reptilians Studies The Flying Saucers Are Real (1947–1950) Project Sign (1948) Estimate of the Situation Project Grudge (1949) Flying Saucer Working Party (1950) Project Magnet (1950–1962) Project Blue Book (1952–1970) Robertson Panel (1953) Condon Report (1966–1968) Institute 22 (1978–?) Project Condign (1997–2000) Identification studies of UFOs List of notable studies in ufology Hypotheses Cryptoterrestrial Extraterrestrial Interdimensional Paranormal or occult Psychosocial Nazi UFOs Conspiracy theories Area 51 Bob Lazar "Disclosure" IPU Majestic 12 Men in Black Project Serpo Involvement Abduction History Entities Claimants Narrative Missing time Perspectives Insurance Other Implants Ancient astronauts Close encounter Contactee Declassification of documents Government responses (GEIPAN) Organizations Ufologists Topics Culture Conventions Fiction Religions (list) Skepticism List of skeptics and skeptical organizations Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Categories: 

• Unidentified flying objects