Re: What draws one to Area 51?


Message posted by georgeums on March 01, 2010 at 21:30:00 PST:

A fascination with military aviation, a little Area 51 lore, and curiosity about "what's next."

The fact that Area 51 is located adjacent to old atomic bomb-testing grounds in the middle of nowhere, all in the middle of a military facility the size of a small country, that's fantastic historically and contextually speaking, but...

I grew up seven miles due north of what was once the 11th-busiest airport in the world in Detroit, right under the main takeoff path, and as a metro Detroiter, I also grew up in a region where the "next big thing" in automobiles was lurking in parking lots in Dearborn or Milford under camouflaged paint schemes and plastic, or on the road right next to you.

It was pretty easy to become fascinated with the top-of-the-line big boys' toy that's barely kept under wraps, regardless of whether it had wings or wheels, so the concept of attempting to peer into a place where the best of the best are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in terms of aviation and technology, never mind the fact that it's located in such a mythically "target-rich environment"...Or that I feel a sort of right to at least ask what all those billions of dollars are being used on as an American who really does want its military to have the "neatest stuff," but also wants to have a healthy bit of skepticism as to whether those billions go nowhere...

I spent my formative years watching tens of thousands of aluminum tubes seemingly defy gravity by way of lift and horsepower, and carry tens of thousands of people to new places and new possibilities. In terms of civilian aviation, we still rely on aluminum tubes, but in military aviation, we're way beyond that.

Why not try to look over the fence line to try and figure out what's under wraps over those Nevada hills, lurking in the world's coolest aviation parking lot?

It's certainly not that simple, nor do I possess that much naivete, but while I respect the fact that the tremendous work those very earthly beings at Groom Lake do have to be kept under wraps so that the bad guys don't know what they've got first, I still want to peek over the fence, and am grateful for the work that the people on this forum and elsewhere do to peer over the fence, try to tell the stories of the people that once did the hard work that makes aluminum tubes into something more subtle, and add a certain level of accountability to the proceedings.


In Reply to: Re: What draws one to Area 51? posted by TheSkunkWorks on March 01, 2010 at 14:30:25 PST:

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