Page 5 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May/June 2022 Edition

Area 51’s Top Secret Outrageous Projects 5

Area 51's Most

Outrageous Top Secret

Spy Plane Projects

Their designs were so radical
that test flights over the Nevada

desert often prompted a rash of
'UFO' sightings.

by Sarah Pruitt
U-2 Dragon Lady

In 1955, the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S.
Air Force and defense contractor Lockheed manned space program. due to its sleek tapered design and black radar-
Martin chose an ultra-remote site in the Mojave absorbing paint. On July 28, 1976, pilots flew an
Desert of southern Nevada, about 80 miles The U-2 (accidentally) took its first test flight SR-71 at a record speed of Mach 3.3, or 2,193
northwest of Las Vegas, to begin testing and over Groom Lake on August 1, 1955 and less mph. At 400 feet per second, this was literally
developing the newest, most advanced aircraft than a year later flew over the USSR for the first faster than a speeding rifle bullet. Retired in
in the world at the time. time, becoming “immediately the most 1990, after more than three decades of service,
important source of intelligence on the Soviet the SR-71 remains the world’s fastest aircraft.
For decades, the Nevada Test and Training Union,” according to a now-declassified CIA
Range, better known as Area 51, didn’t appear report. There was a cost, however: In 1956, three Soviet MiG-21
on any public map, and the U.S. government CIA pilots were killed during U-2 test flights,
didn’t even admit it existed. Thanks to the including two at Area 51 and one at an Air Force In addition to testing new aircraft technologies,
ironclad security surrounding the site, and the base in Germany. In May 1960, the Soviets shot Area 51 was also used to study foreign
experimental nature of the “black aircraft” tested down a U-2 over the Russian city of Sverdlovsk, warplanes that the U.S. government obtained
there, rumors of unidentified flying objects, capturing its pilot Francis Gary Powers and covertly during the Cold War. In the late 1960s,
captive aliens and other mysterious activities forcing the United States to admit it was spying. according to now-declassified CIA documents,
have swirled around Area 51 ever since the ‘50s. While President Eisenhower halted all U-2 the Air Force obtained “Fishbed-E,” a Soviet
flights over the Soviet Union, plans were MiG-21 jet fighter that was loaned to the United
But even if no alien-made UFOs ever took to the already in the works for a smaller, faster—and States after an Iraqi pilot used it to defect to
skies over the salt flat known as Groom Lake, stealthier—aircraft. Israel. Under the program codenamed Have
we now know—thanks in large part to Doughnut, Area 51 personnel inspected and
declassified CIA documents—that a number of A-12 Oxcart & SR-71 Blackbird reverse-engineered the Mach-2 fighter in order
highly sophisticated, highly unusual aircraft to learn how it performed and compare it to
were developed and tested there. From the U-2 Launched in 1957, Project Oxcart produced two select U.S. fighter planes.
spy planes of the Cold War era to a purely of the fastest, highest-flying aircraft in U.S.
experimental Star Trek-inspired craft from the history, the one-seat Archangel-12 and the two- Over 40 days in 1968, U.S. pilots flew the MiG
1990s, here are six of Area 51’s most intriguing seat SR-71 Blackbird. The A-12 had two jet in 102 test flights, logging 77 hours of total
aircraft. engines, a long fuselage and a distinctive cobra- flying time. They found that while the Soviet
like appearance. plane was slower than American planes like the
U-2 Dragon Lady F-5 and F-105, it had a tighter turning radius
The first completed A-12 arrived at Area 51 in than any of them; this finding led analysts to
In the early 1950s, at the peak of the Cold War, February 1962, after being disassembled in warn U.S. pilots to avoid “prolonged
the CIA began a covert effort to develop a Burbank and transported to Nevada in a maneuvering engagements,” or dogfighting.
reconnaissance plane that could reach an altitude specially designed trailer that cost almost
of 70,000 feet, high enough (it was thought) to $100,000 (more than $830,000 today). To keep The top secret MiG program at Area 51 paid
avoid detection by Soviet radar. The result, the A-12’s existence secret, the CIA briefed the dividends in the skies over Vietnam, where U.S.
developed under the code name Project head of the Federal Aviation Administration Air Force pilots ended the war with a two-to-one
Aquatone, was the U-2, the single-engine (FAA), who made sure air-traffic controllers overall kill-loss ratio, downing a total of 137
aircraft with glider-like wings designed by were told to submit written reports of unusually Soviet-made MiGs. It would also spark the
Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, founder of Lockheed fast, high-flying planes, rather than mention creation of the now-famous Top Gun fighter-
Martin’s Advanced Development Projects such sightings over the radio. Still, reports of pilot school, established in 1969.
division (better known as Skunk Works). UFO sightings around Area 51 would reach new
Lockheed built the plane at Skunk Works heights in the mid-’60s, writes Annie Jacobsen (Continued on Page 6)
headquarters in Burbank, California, in just in Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s
eight months, then sent it for testing at Area 51, Top Secret Military Base, starting just after the
which Johnson nicknamed “Paradise Ranch.” A-12 made its official first flight over Area 51 in
April 1962.
Before the U-2 was ready to fly, Lockheed
engineers had to find a fuel that would not Declared fully operational in 1965, after
evaporate in the high altitudes at which the attaining a sustained speed of Mach 3.2 (just
aircraft was designed to fly. To meet this over 2,200 m.p.h.) at 90,000 feet of altitude, the
challenge, Shell Oil Company produced a A-12 began flying missions over Vietnam and
special low-volatility kerosene fuel using the North Korea in 1967. The following year, it was
petroleum byproducts it normally employed in retired in favor of its Air Force successor, the
its “Flit” fly and bug spray. In addition, the SR-71 Blackbird.
technology behind the pressurized suits
developed to keep U-2 pilots alive at such high Longer and heavier than the A-12, the SR-71 Soviet MiG-21
altitudes would later play a key role in the paired supersonic speed with a low radar profile,