What's going on, on the dry bed of Groom Lake?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-19 11:48pm

What do you think the USAF installations at Groom Lake, also known as Area 51, are used for? Alien research?. Developing an F-117 replacement? Secret base for Aurora if it wan't a Canadian P-3?

So let the theories fly. Remember, the more absurd the theory true more likely it is to be true!

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-02-19 11:50pm

There is only ONE word worthy of association with Area 51.

ALIENS!!!!!!

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-20 12:02am

Well, it used to be a testbed for much of our top-secret spy/stealth aircraft since the 50s, but with all the publicity it's gotten in the last 15 years, it's probably being slowly phased out of use, in favor of more remote locations. Still, if you're a pilot and you fly in the restricted airspace, you WILL be met on the runway by military officers and chewed out/forced to sign an NDA for possible exposure to sensitive materials.

If you want to learn the stranger-than-fiction history of the base and the surrounding loonies from a relatively dispassionate point of view, I highly recommendthis book.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-20 12:10am

Alferd Packer wrote:Well, it used to be a testbed for much of our top-secret spy/stealth aircraft since the 50s, but with all the publicity it's gotten in the last 15 years, it's probably being slowly phased out of use, in favor of more remote locations. Still, if you're a pilot and you fly in the restricted airspace, you WILL be met on the runway by military officers and chewed out/forced to sign an NDA for possible exposure to sensitive materials.

But then the question comes up, if its being abandon then why was a new runway built in the mid 1990's....

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-02-20 12:13am

Eh, run of the mill super-secrets. I heard a couple years ago that they may have had some highly questionable methods of HAZMAT disposal, lending even more security to an already secret facility.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-02-20 12:13am

Damn it, why'd you have to post a picture of my house. Er.. I mean it's aliens, yeah, aliesn.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-20 12:17am

Sea Skimmer wrote: But then the question comes up, if its being abandon then why was a new runway built in the mid 1990's....

The new runway was supposedly for the Aurora and/or other hypersonic aircraft that need those 6 miles to take off/land.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-20 12:19am

They're trying to figure out the Caramilk secret.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-02-20 12:23am

Alferd Packer wrote:Well, it used to be a testbed for much of our top-secret spy/stealth aircraft since the 50s, but with all the publicity it's gotten in the last 15 years, it's probably being slowly phased out of use, in favor of more remote locations. Still, if you're a pilot and you fly in the restricted airspace, you WILL be met on the runway by military officers and chewed out/forced to sign an NDA for possible exposure to sensitive materials.
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That will most likely happen if you fly over any restricted airspace over a military base, especially a military research base. The same would most likely happen if you flew over Edwards AFB or Eglin AFB.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-20 12:24am

Personally, I always thought they're trying to figure out the answer to the chunky soup question.

Spoon, or fork? WHAT COULD IT BE?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-20 12:26am

Alferd Packer wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: But then the question comes up, if its being abandon then why was a new runway built in the mid 1990's....
The new runway was supposedly for the Aurora and/or other hypersonic aircraft that need those 6 miles to take off/land.

I've heard that one. And its one of the easier one to send spiraling down in flames.

Funny thing about Aurora, why would the US name a reconnaissance aircraft that, when there already is a reconnaissance aircraft called that flying from North American and often US bases? It happens to be what Canada calls its P-3 patrol aircraft.

I'm willing to bet the name Aurora came into being when someone saw information related to some exported upgrade for Canada aircraft, there have been several and they all go through the DoD. They then looked through a listing of US planes and found nothing by that name, the US calls the P-3 Orion. It then made the leap of logic to being a secret aircraft and got attached to some late 80's Lockheed concept study into hypersonic aircraft.

Now the USAF might have a hypersonic aircraft or some form of working scramjet, budgets have be more then bloated enough to hid the needed tens of billions. But Aurora isn't going to be its name.

Still a cool name and idea which I recycle into my writing though.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-02-20 12:32am

Darth Wong wrote:They're trying to figure out the Caramilk secret.

Naw, these guys do it.

http://www.revealthesecret.com/

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-20 12:35am

neoolong wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:They're trying to figure out the Caramilk secret.
Naw, these guys do it.

http://www.revealthesecret.com/

Given the heat, its more likely they're looking into the secret Coca-Cola formula

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-20 12:39am

Oh yeah, they also supposedly keep MiGs there for combat training excercises. At the very least, MiGs have been photographed flying in the "Box"

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-02-20 12:42am

Its a development base where they intend to combine the awesome power of the Colonel's Secret Herbs and Spices with Coca-Cola, integrate the product into Levi's jeans, bung a golden arches on the crotch and create the ultimate weapon of capitalist imperialist subjugation.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-02-20 12:51am

The Colonel's secret herbs and spices are as follows:

Salt
Black Pepper
Monosodium Glutamate

As seen in the book Big Secrets. One of my many lost books.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-02-20 01:57am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Alferd Packer wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: But then the question comes up, if its being abandon then why was a new runway built in the mid 1990's....
The new runway was supposedly for the Aurora and/or other hypersonic aircraft that need those 6 miles to take off/land.
I've heard that one. And its one of the easier one to send spiraling down in flames.

Funny thing about Aurora, why would the US name a reconnaissance aircraft that, when there already is a reconnaissance aircraft called that flying from North American and often US bases? It happens to be what Canada calls its P-3 patrol aircraft.

I'm willing to bet the name Aurora came into being when someone saw information related to some exported upgrade for Canada aircraft, there have been several and they all go through the DoD. They then looked through a listing of US planes and found nothing by that name, the US calls the P-3 Orion. It then made the leap of logic to being a secret aircraft and got attached to some late 80's Lockheed concept study into hypersonic aircraft.

Actually, it came into being when someone saw the Fiscal Year 1986 budget request, with $80 million assigned to a line item "Aurora" under "air breathing reconaissance," with a projected FY 1987 cost of $2.272 billion. The reason it's believed by many to be a Lockheed recce platform is due to the A-12 Cygnus and SR-71 Oxcart. Like Aurora, both were single name astronomical objects, and were used for Lockheed reconnaisance aircraft. No other similar code name has been used before or since. In general, the fewer words used in a code name, the more "black" it is. Oxcart is a good example when compared to the F-117A program, SENIOR TREND. Aurora won't be the official name, of course, but it is likely that it was the code name until it appeared on the budget (much like the F-117's number being changed after the President mentioned it on television). It is believed Auroras (for lack of a better name, I'm sticking with that) have flown from Nevada to Machrihanish, Scotland. Interestingly enough, Lockheed did submit a proposal in the mid-1980s for an aircraft named Aurora, a Mach 7-8 TransAtmospheric Vehicle designed to replace the SR-71. Projected first flights by independent aerospace defense analysts was 1995. The SR-71 did return to service in 1995, but it was removed again within a few years, despite analysis stating that aerial reconaissance was still vital in gaining data satellites cannot.

If Aurora does exist, it most likely uses methylcyclohexane as fuel. This can absorb up to 1800 Btu per pound of fuel, ten times as much as regular fuel. This would allow for the fuel tanks to serve as heat sinks to prevent the aircraft from burning up.

Additionally, seismographic sensors across California detected sonic booms of a craft traveling between Mach 3 and Mach 4 at roughly 8 to 10 kilometers altitude on at least 5 occasions in late 1991 and early 1992. The craft was smaller than a space shuttle, based upon the shockwaves. Additionally, neither the shuttle nor NASA's SR-71B were operating during any of those periods. The last known incident was roughly 3 PM PST on July 20, 1996.

Aurora may or may not exist. There is a large bundle of circumstantial evidence in favor of the existence of some sort of hypersonic program that is much further along than most people know, but it is just circumstantial. No known clear photographs exist (there is one so grainy I can't even find where it's supposed to be).

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-20 02:19am

They are testing the new Coke and Pop Rocks bomb for eventually use in Iraq.

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2003-02-20 02:41am

Sea Skimmer wrote:What do you think the USAF installations at Groom Lake, also known as Area 51, are used for?

Poll options two and three. These days they're probably into UCAV development, some of which will come out into the grey (i.e. like the F-117 did) eventually, some of which will stay secret on long-term basis. Maybe a bit of life-fire testing of aircraft mounted tactical directed energy weapons thrown into the mix, too.

In addition to development work there's also the possibility that Groom Lake is being used as an operational base for whatever replaced the SR-71.

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