Construction of Area 51

Area 51 is a highly classified United States Air Force facility at Groom Lake in the Nevada desert, about a hundred miles north of Las Vegas. It was selected in 1955 as a site for testing the U-2 spy plane, developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works under Kelly Johnson for the Central Intelligence Agency, because it was remote and protected from observation by surrounding mountains and a dry lake bed. Later it was used for other secret aircraft, including the A-12 Oxcart and the F-117 stealth fighter. The government did not officially acknowledge the site for decades, until CIA documents released in 2013 confirmed its role. Its secrecy has made it a focus of conspiracy theories, especially about extraterrestrial life, even though the activities there are believed to be conventional military testing.

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