After decades of speculation, the CIA finally confirmed the existence of Area 51 as a hub for activity.
Only that activity is aerial government testing rather than alien.
They declassified documents for the site in 2013, which has been historically famed for UFO sightings.
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Sorry, conspiracy theorists.
Rather than a place for extraterrestrials to check in, the highly secretive government site was actually used to test aerial programs.
Government officials have mentioned the base in passing over the years – but the lack of detail was, in itself, enticing.
The declassified seven-chapter history, released over 10 years ago, was the first official acknowledgement that Area 51 exists.
Several documents were released via a Freedom of Information Act request.
They stated that Area 51 was used as an aerial testing ground for US government projects.
The released documents specifically relating to the U-2 and Oxcart aerial surveillance programs.
“High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect – a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs),” they stated.
The intelligence largely centered on formerly classified CIA information about the development and testing of the U-2 spy plane.
However, the historic data also uncovered where the tech had been tested: Area 51.
To triangulate: Area 51 is roughly 100 miles from Las Vegas, and sits in the center of the Nevada National Security Site, which itself lies within the even larger Nellis Air Force Range.
There is an airfield in the space, known as Homey Airport.
The documents attributed these UFO “sightings” to the U-2s ability to fly above 60,000ft – which was considered too high for manned flight for those who weren’t in the know during the era.
“U-2 and later Oxcart flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s,” the documents said.
The U-2 reconnaissance aircraft has been used to conduct surveillance since the 1950s.
It extensively surveilled the Soviet Union, China and Cuba during the Cold War.
It was key to not entering another combat during the Cold War was surveillance technology – for both the US and the Soviet Union.
Designed to keep tabs on the enemy, the surveillance information and the technology to get it were closely guarded secrets for national security.
The aircraft traveled globally to capture covert high-resolution photographs and measurements.
In 1955, its remote location made Area 51 a frontrunner for testing the U-2 spy plane in order to keep it from the public and the enemy.
However, where there’s a dearth of information, mystery and wild speculation will surely follow.
Reports took flight of unidentified flying objects in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Reno Evening Gazette newspaper ran the headline: “More Flying Objects Seen in Clark Sky,” on 17 June, 1959 as just one example.
And the shroud of mystery, alongside chat of little grey and green men, remains seven decades later, with the site still off-limits to civilian and the majority of military air traffic.
Crashed alien spacecraft, space alien experiments and even extra-terrestrial staff, were conspiracy theories emanating from the now-legendary Area 51.
Our search for alien life still ongoing both at home: with a former US Intelligence Officer testifying under oath that the US government has UFOs and alien bodies.
And further afield: a gas was recently found on one planet considered a huge breakthrough.
But, with the knowledge of what was being tested there far from the prying eyes of the general public and the fact that, as test flights increased in the 1950s and 1960s, so too did local UFO sightings, it’s pretty clear what was behind the ‘unexplained’.
But why do rumors still swirl?
Classified drone and other aerial military surveillance technologies have been tested at Area 51 in the more recent past.
