Revealed: How Area 51 Hid Secret Craft

YosemiteSam

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Check out this photo. (yes, it is real and not photoshopped)

The article is a pretty good read.

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area-51-cover-up-plane-crash-pylon-a-12-side_35805_600x450.jpg

A mock-up of an A-12 plane is radar tested on a pylon at Nevada's secret Area 51 base in the late 1950s.

No word yet on alien starships, but now that many Cold War-era Area 51 documents have been declassified, veterans of the secret U.S. base are revealing some of the clever—and surprisingly low-tech—ways they hid futuristic prototypes from prying eyes.

The CIA created Area 51 in 1955 to test and develop top secret U.S. military projects in the remote Nevada desert. More than 50 years later, the base still doesn't officially exist and appears on no public U.S. government maps.

In the 1950s and '60s, Area 51 was the epicenter of the OXCART project, intended to create the successor for the U-2 spy plane.

The OXCART plane was expected to be undetectable in the air as it flew surveillance and information-gathering missions over the Soviet Union. But Area 51 personnel soon found it necessary to conceal the craft from the Soviets eyes even when it was still being tested on the ground.

Complete Story
 

arglebargle

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This was always my take on the Air Force's Project Bluebook. They debunked UFO sightings, so as to be able to cover up the sightings of experimental aircraft and such. Being at the top of that loop allowed them to know which ones to thoroughly discredit.

Years ago, I read an account of a fellow who was driving through the area who saw a version of the Stealth Recon plane flying about. Just so happened that he was extremely knowledgeable about the Air Force's modern designs, and was able to rule out all the publicly known aircraft. As he put it, 'Just their luck, they flew over just the wrong person.'

No telling what extra stuff they've been fiddling with recently.

There was an SR71 flight video that was linked to here, a bit back. Pretty amazing stuff!
 

CowboyDan

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arglebargle;3957656 said:
This was always my take on the Air Force's Project Bluebook. They debunked UFO sightings, so as to be able to cover up the sightings of experimental aircraft and such. Being at the top of that loop allowed them to know which ones to thoroughly discredit.

Years ago, I read an account of a fellow who was driving through the area who saw a version of the Stealth Recon plane flying about. Just so happened that he was extremely knowledgeable about the Air Force's modern designs, and was able to rule out all the publicly known aircraft. As he put it, 'Just their luck, they flew over just the wrong person.'

No telling what extra stuff they've been fiddling with recently.

There was an SR71 flight video that was linked to here, a bit back. Pretty amazing stuff!

Might've been this one: http://www.wimp.com/lockheedblackbird/
 

burmafrd

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We had the XB-70 and the SR-71 flying in the early sixties. And they still have us beleive they have not progressed as to flying higher and faster in the almost 50 years since then. No wonder most people in the know laugh at that idea.
 

Hoofbite

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CowboyDan;3957741 said:

I saw that.

I think it's crazy that it flies so fast that there is no rubber that can withstand the heat.

The thing just drips fuel while parked. because there are gaps in the metal to accommodate expansion when the thing heats up.
 

CowboyDan

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Hoofbite;3957866 said:
I saw that.

I think it's crazy that it flies so fast that there is no rubber that can withstand the heat.

The thing just drips fuel while parked. because there are gaps in the metal to accommodate expansion when the thing heats up.

Yeah that was disturbing :D I don't think I'd want to work around that, especially right after a flight.
I like how it takes 2 Chevy 454's to fire up the engines!
 
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