Re: Underground Facilities at A51


Message posted by Peter Merlin on March 28, 2014 at 9:00:53 PST:

The hangars at Area 51 were built on the floor of the valley, away from the nearest hills. There is no hillside directly abutting Groom Lake. The nearest, Papoose Mountain, is separated from the lakebed by a gently sloping expanse of alluvial deposits. This would be rather less than ideal for constructing subterranean facilities. It consists mostly of loose soil and rocks. Additionally, any sort of excavation would leave a pronounced scar. The same situation exists at nearby Papoose Lake. In short, there is no easy access from mountain to lakebed in either case.

The cost of building a subterranean facility would be substantial. It would also be completely unnecessary. It is just as easy to hide an airplane in a much less expensive conventional hangar. There are more than two dozen hangars at Area 51. Several of these have been constructed over the past decade. The largest of these required the additional effort and expense of building a separate taxiway and parking apron. If there was a massive underground complex at Groom Lake there would be no need to build more hangars, and it would not be desirable to do so because new construction alerts watchers that a new program is underway.


In Reply to: Underground Facilities at A51 posted by John Barber on March 27, 2014 at 20:04:43 PST:

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