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Area 51 No Longer (Officially) a Secret
schnell writes "The first-ever declassified story of Area 51's origin is now available, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act filed years ago by George Washington University's National Security Archive. The (only lightly redacted) document is actually primarily a history of the U-2 and A-12 ("Oxcart") spy plane programs from the Cold War, but is remarkable for being the first-ever official unclassified acknowledgment of Area 51's purpose and its role in the program. Interesting tidbits include that the U-2 program was kicked off with a CIA check mailed personally to Lockheed Skunk Works chief Kelly Johnson for $1.25M; a U-2 was launched off an aircraft carrier to spy on French nuclear tests; and the U-2 delivery program itself was actually done under budget, a rarity for secret government programs then or now."
The entire thing must be completely fake.
I refuse to acknowledge as possible the finalization of a secret government program under budget.
> "The (only lightly redacted)documentis actually primarily a history of
> the U-2 and A-12 ("Oxcart") spy plane programs from the Cold War,"
Of course it's only lightly redacted -- they made the whole thing up. Light redaction is how we know they're lying. Give it up feds! >:-(
Give us the LGM BEM SAUCERS NAO!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
If you look at the aircraft that came out of the skunk works you'll know what I mean. He and his organization came up with the P-38, the U-2, the C-130, and the SR-71; to name only a few achievements. It makes most people in tech look like little kiddies playing in a sandbox.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
So where is the part about the captured Space Aliens and their ship?
And what has it been doing for the last 20 years? then again i didnt RTFA
F-117, B-2, remote sensing gear for arms control/inspection, The Predator and global hawk drones, NERVA Rockets and probably those fancy stealth modified Black Hawks from Neptune Spear and comms and radar gear.
Just your average run-of-the-mill secret aerospace stuff.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
i believe they are forgetting to mention all the aliens theyve been testing on and keeping secret from us
Exactly. I bet there are current yet unheard of planes there still.
A UFO is an unidentified flying object. The average person is an idiot and can't tell the difference between a fly and a bird under certain conditions.
For me a couple of weeks ago I got caught in the middle of a coast guard search and rescue. They were dropping parachute flares for hours bright enough to light up miles and miles if open water. It took us 20 minutes to figure out they were parachute flares and not boats. You couldn't hear the planes unless they were close. It was surreal for a little while as they didn't fall very fast. And sometimes took sharp changes in course.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
You mean that Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction was fiction? Shocking. Does that mean we really did land on the Moon?
It's been a widely open secret for a long time. Everyone who wasn't a UFO kook has known that the place was used for testing experimental aircraft for decades now. A bunch of workers from there even sued the government a while back for medical conditions related to exposure to toxic chemicals (they were ordered to burn all kinds of experimental jet fuels and other nasty stuff while they worked there).
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Also, Ben Rich (Kelly Johnson's successor) wrote this up in his book Skunk Works. He didn't mention "Area 51" by name, but some of its other nicknames such as "Dreamland" or "Paradise Ranch" were mentioned.
I think the most impressive thing about the Blackbirds were that they were designed in an era when computers were quite primitive and engineers usually used slide rules.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
In fact, the Government's motion to dismiss that lawsuit was (I believe) the first public acknowledgement that the base existed.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
I highly recommend the memoir, "Skunkworks" by Ben Rich, who was Kelly Johnson's successor. He tells a great story of the building of the U-2 program, and also later projects including the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 stealth fighter. Amazing stories.
According to Ben Rich, it was Dick Chaney who ultimately got the SR-71 canceled, and instructed them to destroy all the plans, tooling, and parts for building the aircraft. Ostensibly this was to prevent any other nation from ever learning its secrets. And all this was because Chaney's cronies owned companies who made spy satellites. Even though a lot of analysts argued we still needed aircraft for some surveillance, they decided to go with satellites. Which of course other nations know where they are and when they go overhead. And since then the U-2 has still flown because there are missions that only an aircraft can perform.
Even as recent as the gulf war (yes I'm old enough to consider 1991 as recent) these aging spy planes were pressed into action because they were all we had, and they performed their task very well. Have to admire how well the military does being yanked around so much by politics (and of course they dish the politics right back... sequester and all that). But with all the abuses revealed of late by Private Manning, perhaps it's only fitting that the military is in decline, along with the nation, and has had its toys taken away.
is it me or is FOIA kinda toothless these days? the oxcart and have blue shit has been a discovery channel/history channel show fodder for almost a decade. most everything in the release is common knowledge to anyone with access to wikipedia. FOIA was designed to start answering questions like who visited the whitehouse while George Bush was president, how does the domestic spy program work, and did we seriously commit war crimes in iraq.
instead its been so neutered, ignored and redacted at every level of government its basically a rubber stamp for any agency seeking to claim legitimacy in their clandestine day to day operations. the NYPD ignored for 2 years their FOIA for stop and frisk, and administrations routinely claim state secrets or executive privilege when they hear a question they dont like.
People like Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Asssange are today the only means by which we request the freedom of information from our government, elected by and for the people. sideshows like this are to ensuring accountability in the government as the scopes monkey trial was to ensuring credibility to evolution.
Good people go to bed earlier.
There are actually a lot of reports of the B-2 Spirt being reported as Black Triangle UFOs and there is some plausible evidence out there that there might be another experimental airframe out there that is triangular in shape.
He would have told the French we were spying on their nuclear tests.
To which they would probably have replied, 'Yeah, we guessed they would be'.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
you have to be a US citizen work at Groom Lake. duh!
mfwright@batnet.com
I live near a military base and near the flight path of a municipal airport. I've seen plenty of aircraft that I can or can't recognize over my place {no aliens}. A couple months ago something came awfully close to the house in the late evening while I was kicked back on the deck couldn't say what it was {other than probably military} but it was dead silent until it passed by and startled me good. What ever it was it was moving fast and rattled the house.
I think the only other time I've been startled like that is when the roof top AC for my office building got struck by lightening.
It's been a widely open secret for a long time. Everyone who wasn't a UFO kook has known that the place was used for testing experimental aircraft for decades now.
The UFO kooks say the same, only that the experimental aircraft are based on alien technology from Roswell and/or other contact/cooperation with aliens. Nobody except the US government denies that part.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
While everyone else is making jokes about aliens and the budget, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it would take to launch a U2 (103-ft wingspan) from a carrier. Besides the width, I didn't think it was optimized for short takesoffs, and it looks like the wings would snap off if you launched it with a catapult.
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Yes, I think over a decade ago the government acknowledged that Area 51 = Groom Lake Air Force Base.
and the U-2 delivery program itself was actually done under budget, a rarity for secret government programs then or now."
All of this stuff is obfuscated.
I guess all those documents from two years ago don't count, then?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389591/A-sneak-peek-inside-Area-51-Declassified-documents-offer-rare-glimpse-secretive-site-Earth.html
The DoD just finished moving the UFOs to another location.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
the SR-71 is probably the most beautiful plane ever to have flown.
The SR-71 is undeniably a gorgeous plane and I agree that the P-38 is striking as well. But for my money I love the look of the YF-23 if we are talking about jets and the P-51 Mustang if we are talking about prop planes. Just my own preferences of course. I like the U2 just because it is SO simple in design. Basically a powered glider. Simple, elegant and still functional to this day.
All the aliens must have died. No need to keep it secret anymore... :(
I don't know about you, but I miss them already...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft)
In some cases if a plane is high enough and fast enough, the sound from it wont have time to travel that far ahead of it and thus it and the sound of it arrive pretty close together.
I've seen it with fighter jets, it's completely silent, then just as the thing passes over or near you you get that awesome engine sound. Not a sonic boom, mind you, but still loud as fuck if they're low enough.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
I usually don't pay to much attention and to them cause they are usually a lot higher and a lot less noisy, but this one caught me by surprise.
No more like ... Bird of Prey ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Bird_of_Prey
You kind of hit on it, but altitude has little-to-nothing to do with it (except if it's high enough, you will never hear it).
it.
But it kind of does, remember that the speed of sound (depending on temperature, pressure and moisture in the air, of course) is about 340.29 m/s, so if the plane is, let's say, 680.58 meters up in the air, the sound will take 2 seconds to reach you, now if the plane is moving, let's say, 300 m/s it'll have passed you before the sound actually makes it to you, despite not actually being supersonic.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.