The dry lake bed of Groom Lake in Nevada is better knows as Area 51. The military installation didn’t “officially” exist until recently, but secrets are still coming to light… and will be for decades. For those looking to learn a bit more about the history of Area 51 and the myriad aircraft, technology and secrets, “Area 51: The Graphic History of America’s Most Secret Military Installation,” might be worth a read.
The graphic novel is penned by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and illustrated by Greg Scott. The book reveals “how for more than 60 years, the CIA, the U.S. Air Forice, and Lockheed Martin all used Area 51 as a staging ground for test flights of experimental or highly classified aircraft.” Archangel-12 U-2, SR-71 and F-117 are a few of the aircraft detailed.
Area 51 is a quick read at just 96 pages. The art is entertaining but at $19.99 a tad pricey. It is available from Amazon and other retailers.
Mankind has a tendency to exaggerate their importance in the world. Area 51’s secrecy is but one example. Ejecting rather than land there, Groom Lake, is so off the page as to be laughable. Being escorted by armed guards to the restroom is another. The only people for whom there was so much secrecy was the American public. The Soviets knew all the “secrets” of Area 51 just as the Kremlin knew all about the “special weapon” that had been developed and had it’s first successful test in 1945 in New Mexico whence Truman passed that information to our then ally Stalin in hushed tones during the Malta conference. Stalin nodded with his usual smirk. The Soviets already had their hands on much of the design secrets of the atomic bomb which enabled them to duplicate its development a few short years later.
Ben, my first day in March of 1983 with Maraton battery Corporation I was assigned to meet at Lockheed Burbank for an engineering meeting ( the receptionest was an armed guard and there was a large “skunk” painted on the wall behind his desk) with the onboard charger manufacturer engineering group (ELDEC) of about 6 guys, I as I remember and probably a dozen Lockeed Engineers with our VP of Engineering, a PHD in Elelectro Chemistry. We were locked in a room and were told that if anyone had to go to the mens room he would have to be escorted by 2 Lockheed Engineers.
As computers were not used like they are today a slide projector was used to show the schematic of the battery charger. An argument started between Lockheed Engineering and the Charger Manufacturing Engineers, I was LOST! I’m just an A & P , IA I dont know a transistor form a bail of hay.
I raised my hand and asked WHAT’S the PROBLEM? well of course the Stealth was so top secret that it did not exist, so Lockheed Engneering said your battery is running out of water and is unreliable in the “VEHICLE”.
So I ased how does the charger work?
The Charger Engineer explaned how it charged the battery up to and then a timed 3 minutet overcharge before dropping down to the normal 28.5 DCV charge. Well I knew that the “VEHICLE” was being built and tested so I asked Lockheed engineering , “does this happen with external power as well as internal power and they said yes. I said well disconnect the battery when the “VEHICLE” is in test, do you know how many times a day that you are over charging the battery? Perhaps more than 100 ! Well they never thought of that and that was the end of the meeting.
For 3 years I supported the 50 some odd “VEHICLE” batteries and never saw one F-117A, I wrote a letter to my boss and said it was an F-19 as that was the missing number, we had batteries on the
YF-17, F/A-18 and F-20 BUT THERE WAS NO F-19! In those 3 years I had gained the confidence of both the Lockheed engneering and Techs that built and maintained the “VEHICLES” Then I when to work for CONCORDE BATTERY CORPORATION and tried to sell Locheed on switching from NiCad’s to our new Sealed Lead Acid Type and they would have NO INTEREST at all.
When we got our first production contact from the NAVY for 75 F/A-18 sealed lead acid batteries in 1987
we shipped them to a NAVY DEPOT in VA, but they were taken out by a top secret clearance with no tracability. The NAVY was not happy as F/A-18’s were grounded for batteries and we got another rush order to build 75 more ASAP.
After the Persian Gulf War the F-117A became very well known and I got a call from Lockheed telling me that they had switched to CONCORDE BATTERIES and that management would send me a letter acknowledging that.
In the late 50s pilots flying out of Nellis AFB were told to stay away from Groom Lake. The Nellis gunnery ranges were near that restricted area. If an emergency situation occurred you were to eject from the aircraft rather than attempt a landing at Groom. That’s how sensitive that area was. That was about the time the U-2 was being tested.