The Plane Truth About Area 51

The Sunday Telegraph reports:

From engrossing television hokum such as The X-Files to blockbuster films like Independence Day; from conspiracy tracts about the New World Order to fevered discussions on UFO websites, no other military installation can match Area 51’s pop-culture cachet. In the Nineties, Area 51 became the world’s most bizarre tourist attraction as people from around the world flocked to the base, on the southern shore of the dry Groom Lake in southern Nevada, hoping to catch a glimpse of something extraordinary.

There had been rumours of weird things in the skies above Groom for years, but they reached a peak after Bob Lazar, who claimed to be a former employee of Area 51, went on television in 1989 with what he said was evidence that the US Air Force was conducting tests on flying saucers which could be observed from public land nearby. His claims were soon discredited, but mystery still surrounds the airbase.

And the classified status of its activities, which has fuelled the extraterrestrial rumour mill for so many years, has also helped ensure the real-life nightmares visited on some of those who worked at Area 51 have remained as intangible as the fictions that surround the place.

What is definitely known about Area 51 is that it’s used by the US government to develop and test experimental aircraft and weapons systems and that it’s been doing this since flight-testing of the U-2 spy plane began there in 1955. Designed by Lockheed, on behalf of the CIA, the U-2 was a high-altitude, long-range aircraft capable of flying over enemy territory and taking pictures, unobserved.