Area 51

[jerrybob]

Use to do lots of fishing in the Eastern Sierras.....not too far from area 51.... Back in the 80's.....me and a buddy were fishing the Walker River when suddenly a strange plane came out of nowhere......very low......right down the middle of the small valley we were in. The plane was big.....looked like a bat wing and I remember looking at my buddy who was a former Fighter Pilot and saying...."Holy S#$T!" Turns out it was a stealth bomber.......before our government admitted they had them. Amazing sight.......about ten minutes later.....caught 4.5lb brown trout.....it was a good day!

Government acknowledges Area 51 in declassified spy plane documents - Las Vegas Sun News

 

[creekbend]

Better late then never. This was long over due.

 

[cqaigy2]

Use to do lots of fishing in the Eastern Sierras.....not too far from area 51.... Back in the 80's.....me and a buddy were fishing the Walker River when suddenly a strange plane came out of nowhere......very low......right down the middle of the small valley we were in. The plane was big.....looked like a bat wing and I remember looking at my buddy who was a former Fighter Pilot and saying...."Holy S#$T!" Turns out it was a stealth bomber.......before our government admitted they had them. Amazing sight.......about ten minutes later.....caught 4.5lb brown trout.....it was a good day!

Government acknowledges Area 51 in declassified spy plane documents - Las Vegas Sun News

In the 1980s i was in Wenatchee Washington, the back yard of a friends house. It was a clear night with out moon. I noticed movement across the stars, look up and saw an outline of a triangle shape moving at a pretty good clip. No lights on it but you could just make out two soft glows on the trailing edge. We both wondered what the heck it could be, but it was till years later after seeing a stealth bomber on the news that i figured that must have been what we had seen.

 

[flyerdan]

Kind of hard to deny its existence when it shows up on Google Earth in nice high res (although I suppose someone will be along to declare that what we are seeing is an ad hominem straw-base) nestled there in the high desert just above Lost Wages. Back when Art Bell was at the helm of C2CAM, that was a fairly regular topic of discussion, with several guests who professed to work there at one time or another, most notable being Bob Lazar.
Fellow that lived in Rachel, NV used to put out a text based newsletter called "The Groom Lake Desert Rat" in the early 90's before the internet was everywhere; it was distributed by BBS back then. Dealt primarily with the land grabs and political dealings surrounding the base. In case anyone didn't know, the whole reason it got built where it's at is because Kelly Johnson needed a good place to develop the U2 spy plane out of sight. The UFO lore came later, as the base was built at least ten years after the Roswell crash.

 

[3930dave]

I read Ben Rich's book on the Lockheed Skunkworks.

Initial stealth testing was done on scale models. The first problem they had on the radar test range (I think it was White Sands, but it's been a while since I read the book....) was the pole, as in the one they mounted the model to be tested on.

They were getting way too much reflection from the mounting pole, so they couldn't really quantify what was coming back off their first model.

So..... the Lockheed engineers had to design a stealth pole, before they could get on with the range tests.

Overheard in the radar room was the base radar techs whispering (once the new pole was installed) "Hey, if they're that good with a pole, can't wait to see the plane itself !".

Even if you aren't a big aviation fan, but just enjoy technology in general, that book of Rich's is a good read.

Rgds, D.