Rumors about Area 51 have been circulating since an alien spacecraft landed did not land in the Mojave Desert. Recently declassified CIA documents confirm that the secret army base exists but, no, the documents don’t mention anything about aliens.
The George Washington University’s National Security Archive recently obtained several documents about the CIA’s U-2 spy plane program. There are several mentions of Area 51 throughout the report.
USA Today reports that Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archive, reviewed the documents in 2002 but that version had all mentions of Area 51 redacted. Richelson requested another copy and this time the base was mentioned by name.
ABC reports that the government used Area 51 in the 1950s and 60s to test secret projects like the U-2 spy plane.
The U-2, not to be confused with a UFO, could fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet. That’s higher than any other plane at the time and may have contributed to some UFO reports in the area.
The documents read: “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… High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect — a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
The documents also talk about three fatal U-2 plane crashes.
Are you surprised that Area 51 exists? The secret facility opened in 1954 and continued operation until at least 1974. The 400 page report makes no mention of Area 51 after 1974.
