[AlphaSigOU]

For many years, 'Area 51', Groom Lake or 'Watertown Strip' has been the place where cutting-edge projects from the highly-classified 'black world' are first tested, away from the prying eyes of the public. You won't see it on most maps; the Las Vegas aeronautical chart shows a restricted area box (R-4808) extending from the surface to space (even the prohibited area surrounding the White House and the Capitol (P-56) does not extend that far up); Air Force pilots who accidentally cross 'The Box' are subject to intense security debriefings and risk losing their wings.

The U-2, A-12 and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft were first tested at Groom Lake, so were the F-117 fighter-bomber and B-2 bomber, as well as various experimental unmanned drone concepts. A little-known project was also tested at Groom Lake as well: captured Soviet Union fighter aircraft were evaluated by the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron 'Red Hats'.

Occasionally, pilots training at the USAF Fighter Weapons School (aka 'Red Flag') at Nellis AFB were given a little taste of duking it out with real Russian aircraft on the vast Nellis Gunnery and Test Range (larger than the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined).

As the F-117 slowly emerged into the 'white' (unclassified) world, a purpose-built base was constructed for them in the northern end of the Nellis Range near the town of Tonopah. They were later moved to Holloman AFB, New Mexico after Gulf War I.

Nearly all satellite photos published of Groom Lake curiously show no aircraft parked on the ramps - the orbital paths of Russian and other reconnaisance satellites are well known and aircraft are hidden away before the satellites have a chance to see them. The few vantage points on the ground have been swallowed up by the Air Force in the name of 'national security'.

It's a known fact that most Groom Lake personnel travel to and from Las Vegas in Boeing 737 aircraft with plain markings from a nondescript private terminal on the west end of Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport. 'Janet Air' (from its call sign, 'Janet', probably changed by now) is at its busiest in the mornings and afternoons making the flights to and from 'Area 51' and possibly other classified locations that have not yet seen the light of day.

As for the stories of UFOs and extraterrestrial aliens... I smell a deliberate campaign of disinformation to keep the public attention from going deeper into detail as to the true purpose of Groom Lake - a great place in the middle of Bumf*ck, Nevada where you can test cutting-edge aircraft designs without air traffic and airspace limits.