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acres of BLM land. Widnall cited theneed for the "safe and secure operationof the activities on the Nellis RangeComplex," a military reservation that

covers much o r southern levada andincludes the secret base.

POPULAR SelEN E recently wrote to

Widnall, requesting permission to visitGroom Lake. We propo ed to give thepubl ic a reasonable overview of the de-fense research the government con-ducts there, without jeopardizing thesecurity of sensitive technologies. AirForce Colonel Douglas J. Kennett atthe Pentagon responded: <',While wemay all agree the Cold War is over, Ithink we can also agr e that this na-tion must continue to maintain ti.ghtsecurity on certain military projects."R presentative Robert S. Walker,

vice chairman of the House Science,Space, and Technology Committee,has a different view: "We now have a

reshaped world. When we had a super-power confrontation, it made sense torun the programs the way we ranthem. Now, we ought to reexaminehow we handle 'black' programs, Itmakes Httie sen re to withhold technol-ogy from public entrepreneurship, ifillfact it allows us to leapfrog the rest ofthe world."A congressional source with tbe

highest Levelofsecurity clearance, whohas visited Groom Lake several times,believes that a mysterious technologydevelopment eiroIt has been underway

for ye81·S."This is not pari. of he offi-cial program of the U.S. government"although aircraft are being tested andflown at government ranges, according1 .0 the source, "I think this is some sortof intelligence operation, or there couldbe foreign money involved .... It's expen-siv and is immune to the oversight.process, This defrauds the Americangovernment and people. You go to jailfor that.'The tract of land the Air Force

wants is sbaped like a voting districtcarved into an improbable checker-board by gerrymandering politicians.Its patchwork outline results from themilitary's wish to grab the hilltopswithout approaching a 5,OOO-acrethreshold that would require an atten-tion-getting congresstonal hearing.The final decision will be made follow-ing a public hearing to be held earlythi year.

Ipite of a formidable ring of securi-ty extending onto public land wellbeyond 'he perimeters of the base,

determined and technologically savvycampers continue to visit the area.One group of watchers who dog thesite call themselves the Dreamland In-terceptors. They come from manywalks of life, but share three k y atti-

54 • P O P U L A R H l E H C E M A R C H J 9 9 4



tudes: military aircrafb=-particularly

seer t on s-are fascinating; moreknowledge about what tax moneybuys is better than less; and cheapaluminum lawn chairs are essentialequipment. when you're spending a

day or tw perch d on sharp rocks.I joined an Interceptor mission to

Groom Lake last March. The squad in-cluded off-duty California police ofl'i-cers, a former test pilot, a model-air-plane d signer, a p litical activist andJim Goodall, a veteran chaser of se-cret, or "black, H airplanes. Unfazed by

authoritarian bluster, Goodall has es-tablished a long track record along theperimeter fences of de ert air bases.He was one of the first L a snap photosof the then-secret Lockheed F-1l7A

stealth attack planes wben they werecovertly operating from the 'IbnopahTest Range abou 80 miles northwest.

of Groom Lake.Another member of the band was

John Andrews, who designs spyplanemodels as product developer at Testa rCorp. (see photo), Andrews created asurprisingly accurate model of theLockheed . -2 spyplane in the late

19505 when it was unknown to thepublic and again made wave in 1986with his F-19 stealth plane, the best-selling plastic model kit in history. Al-though th F-1l7A turned out to lookdifferent. from Andrews' model, thescience b hind he model's design wassound. The F-19 caused alarm in thesecret airplane world because itsradar cross section wa found to bequite small.Ben Rich, retired president of La k-

heed's Skunk Works, which built sev-eral of the aircraft. Goodall and An-

drews pursue, view the pair aspatriotic gadflies. "The government: se-curity peopl hate tho guys. But Iadmire them. They're persistent. Theydig. And they sit on top of the moun-tain. r hink they're the Ross Perots of

the airplane world," he says.

Unpacking our camping gear belowthe mountain we notice two un-marked, beige security vehicles

parked half a mile away in either di-rection. Th driv 1'S bserve us withbinoculars, moving to keep us inview.We peer back through our binoculars,watching them watch us."The sheriff will be here in about 45

minutes," Goodall announces. "The se-curity guys will have called on the ra-dio by now." Etiquette calls for chat-ting with the sheriff before we head upthe hill. He is required L a respond tothe call, and there's no point inmak-

ing him waste time climbing or wait-iug for us to come back down, In themean irne, we savor the air show pro-vided by thundering F-15s, F-16s, B-

p O P U l H Hi EMU M A R C I l 1 9 9 4 • S5



T h e , r a c t o f la l fd t It e A i r

F o r c e w o n t s u nd er 1 f t l 1 i t a r y

( l H I f ro l (recl] Is a p o t m w o r k .

t h a t I n c l u d e s a l l t h e h i g h

g r o un d n ea r G r o om lake.

i~ ~ ~

Mode l d e s ign er

J o h n Andrews o f

T e sto r C o rp . be lie v es tbe ( od e

name A ur or a d enote s not one s eue t

s pyplone , but a s ys te m com pris ed of tw o or

more a i r c r a f t . Andrews ' M a c h - 3 SR - 7S P ene tr o-

lo r r n a d e l i s b as e d o n s lghtings o f l in oniden tifled

p l a n e t h ot m ay h ov e '''re e roles: re ( o n n a[ssllme

m i nio ns o~ e r l i g h t l y . d e l ~ n d e d 11'.805; th e o l ~borne s e n s i n g of rodlollc1 lve woopans mote r lols ;

and as IImothers h i p t hot l aunche s smnll511fel-

lite s o r a d e llo -s bape d h y~ rs onj c d au gh le ruah

'" fr om its bad (. T h e pig g yb ack ed XR - 7 th und e r-S d ar t m o d e l represents a hypersonic s p y p l o n e

15thai u s es both l et and pul se - de tona tion -wove~ e ng ine s to r eoch 0 speed o f M a th 7 .

525, and other planes flying low-leveltraining missions through the emptyvalleys nearby. At one point, Russian

Sukhoi 61,)-22 and MiG-23 fighters

atr ak overhead.Soon, a Lincoln County sheriff rolls

up in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. He

politely advises us to steer clear ofcattle grazing on the open range,park at least 100 yards from wa-tering troughs, be careful with

campfires, and re-

frain from taking

pictures of "the airbase over there."

Then the sheriff

leaves, and we be-gin hiking to the

peak of WhiLeSides, 1.868 feet

above the valley floor, where a dustingof snow lies on the dark sides of therocks. In the thinning air at 6,089 feet

above sea level, the steep trek inducesa lot of buffing and puffing.

earling us isGlenn Campbell, a for-

mer computer programmer wholives in the nearby hamlet of

Rachel (population about 100; onestore, one bar, no post office). Camp-ben has become an activist, pushingfor the return of military lands to pub-

lie use and has created a lobbyinggroup called the White Sides Defense

5 6 • P O P U L A R S C IE N C E M A R C i l \ 9 9 4

Committee. He publishes a wryly

amusing document called Area 51

Viewer's Guide which contains tips forvisitors, maps of back roads, and de-

scriptions of flying objects likely to beseen. CampbelJ s guide has readers onboth sides of the security fence, and as

far away as Washington. D.C .Also hiking with us is a tall, silver-

haired man who bas the Matterhornon his list of meuntain-climbing cred-its. I labor to keep np with BobGilliland, to hear his reaction uponreaching the summit. Finally, we ar-

rive: "There's the place I almost killedmyself a couple of times," says the for-

mel' Lockheed test pilot, gazing downat the lake bed where, in 1962, he flew

the then-secret predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird. He tells chilling talesabout engine flameouts and othernear-catastrophes that occurred while

engineers struggled to perfect theMach 3.2 spyplane. Gilliland hasn'tbeen to Groom Lake in a long time.They don't have alumni reunions here,

W deploy our lawn chairs and un-pack the kits we've brought to Neva-da's "bird watching" COWl try: binocu-lars, spotting scopes, tripods,

broadband radio-frequency scanners,

night-vision equipment, walkie-talkies, maps and compasses, tape

recorders, and drab-colored clothing.As the setting sun creates a pinkish



glow along the ridgeline behind thebase, the temperature drops rapidly,Crazy kangaroo mice appear bounc-ing around searching for crumbs, butour MREs (military-issue, mea s

ready-to-eat) come in unchewablepouches. Where there are mice, thereare usually snakes-perhaps rat-tlesnakes-but at this time of year

they should be hibernating, we tellourselves. Out come the sweaters,gloves, and sleeping bags. And outcome the stars-more and more starsshining in the crystal-indigo sky-andwith them the lights on the hangarand alongside tbe big runway atDreamland.

At Groom Lake, most of what the

'base needs-people, supplies,and the hardware being test-

ed-arrives the expensive way, by air.

Large experimental aircraft are par-tially disassembled so they can be de -

livered inbig transport planes.Civilian listeners using scanners to

monitor military radio frequencieshave Iearned that the flights shuttlingworkers to the base identify th m-selves by the callname Janet. Wewatch several planes come and go in-

cluding a C-130 Hercules transportand a twin-engine military Beechcraft.Every weekday, ten to 12 Janet

flights make the round-trip, They areBoeing 737 airliners departing fromspecial, secure terminals operated by

defense contractor EG&G Corp, atMcCa ran Airport inLas Vegas and inPalmdale, Calif. The only marking thewhite-painted planes bear is a broad,red stripe running the length of thefuselage, Observers who count thesedaily shuttles calculate that 1,500 e o

2,500 people work at the base. Sbuttleflights cease on weekends, presum-ably so employees can spend time athome.At jetliner speeds, Groom Lake is

only about half an hour from Las Ve-gas so the Janet flights don't climbhigh. They approach the Dreamlandrunway from the southwest in a long,slow descent lasting several minutes.

At night, the landing lights oftbe 7378seem to hang almost motionless in thesky, causing excitement among UFOseekers (see "Area 51: Home of theAliens?").

Secret aircraft tend to depart north-ward from Groom Lake. Depending ontheir performance characteristics,

they may climb several thousand feetbefore even crossing the base perime-ter. We watch a dark, fighter-sized air-plane take off to the north. The blackshape resembles an F-117A, but wecan't be sure. Painting an airplaneblack and flying it at night is a simplean d effective way to make it extreme-

ly hard to see--ol' photograph. Turn

off the running lights and it virtuallydi appear , particularly when there's

no moonlight.On an earlier visit, Goodall heard an

unforgettably loud, deep rumblings undo Perhaps it was a pulsed-com-bustion propulsion sy tern powering ahypersonic aircraft'? ampbelJ hasheard the same noise, as have otherRachel residents. For Goodall, the Holy

Grail is getting a picture of such a craft.Few civilian visitors to the area

would dare cross a fence Line moni -

tored by solar-powered video camerasand studded with signs warning: UseOf Deadly Force Authorized. Shadow-ing the perimeter, however, is a per-fectly legal activity that drives thePentagon nuts.The military attempted to secure

this secret base when it seized 89,000

P O P U L A R W fN C E M A R C H 1 9 9 4 ·57



acr from the ELM in 1984, an actionthat cau ed political friction in eva-da. La t er, Congress approved this

move on national-security grounds.However, the enlarged perimeterfailed to include two peaks: WhiteSides, and another that Glenn amp-bell-i-and now even the securityguards-calls Freedom Ridge.

Both peaks command an excellentview of the base. Did foreign agentspeer along the 12-mile sight-lines into the heart ofblackness duringthe 19 Os? Wemay well nev r

know. 'How v-el ' , the arrow-straight line

forming thefacility's

eastern bor-

der suggeststhat the r'e-stricted area's1984 boundariesw r dr-awn not by

a surveyor walkingthe terrain, but rather bya desk-bound bureaucrat,

Groom Lake's role as a secret ail'base began in 1954, when the

ClA gave Lockheed a contract todevelop a spyplane that could fly high-er than any aircraft. yet built. The So-

viet Union was to be the U-2's primarytarget. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVi-er who had made he first flight in thehot F-l04 fighter from which the U-2was d riv d, was dispatched ina twin-prop company plane to find a locationwhere tests of the slender-wingede rafl, co uld be kept bidden.Situated between isolated desert

mountain ranges and near the AtomicEnergy Commission's nuclear bombtesting area, the barren, flat expanseof Groom Lake seemed perfect. For se-

curity reasons, the AE . which laterb came the Departm nt of Energy,handled the construction of a runwayhangars, and other buildings neededfor the U-2.Flight testing of the Air Force SR-71

spyplane and its predecessor, the CIA'sA-12, was conducted there in 1962.Cover t ly obtained Sov i e t fighters werealso hidden and Ilight-tested there,And about 10 years ago, the F-117Afirst flew at Groom Lake.Big defense spending during the

H . agan administration brought in new

activity. During the 19 Os, an venfaster replacement. for the SR-71 ap-pars to have begun flying out ofGroom Lake-s-varioua reports havedubbed j Aurora, Senior itizen, orSenior Smart-despite what Lhe Air

[Continued all page 84]

58 • P O P U LA R S C I E N e E M A R C H 1 9 9 4



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Secrets o f G ro om L ake[Con ti nu ed f rom page 59 J

Force says to the contrary. Perhapsthis program actually belongs to theC IA or th e National ReconnaissanceOffice, making Air Force denial truth-ful in the narrowest sense of the word.An arms-control analyst, who insists

on remaining anonymous, says he has

examined a classified, late-1991 Land-sat image of Groom Lake that showsthree large, white triangles sittingnear the main runway. "They areabout Lilesize of 747 airliners and re-mind me of the XB-70 bomber proto-type from the 1960s,~ he says. Landsatis a U.S . satellite, so sensitive itemsmay not always be hidden when it

passes overhead.Other secret projects likely to have

been tested in recent years at GroomLake include steal thy vertical-landingaircraft; designed to covertly transportmall groups of special-forces troopsinside foreign territory. Many of thedozens of remotely piloted vehiclescurrently in use or under developmentby the military have probably beenflown at the base too. And expansionof the base itself conbinu s as we) .Aerial photos taken in 1968 and 1988r veal the addition ofmany structuresalongside the big runway.Recen years have brought even

more growth. onstruction of a paral-lel runway estimated to be 15,000 feet

long was begun around 1989 to permitcontinued tljgh testing when winterflooding makes the main runway'snorthern hal f unusable. A new tankfarm stores cryogenic liquid methaneor hydrogen fuels used by hypersonicaircraft,Research by Jim Go dall indicates

the probable use of two vast newbuildings. A high-ceilinged hangar,perhaps several stor+es tall, isequipped with gantry cranes for themating and de-mating of the Auroramotherahip and daughtership spy-planes. A nd a second large buiJding isused for the [mal assembly of variousel assified aircraft.

ast June, Goodall and Campbellselected an observation point onELM land that was under the run-

way's climb-out path. It's a boringplace to be-unless something "black"departs from Groom Lak :f1yingnorth.The two campers could hear the

clattering of its rotors for a few min-

utes before the helicopter appeared. ASikorsky Im-60G Blackhawk withAil" Force markings on its dark-greencamouflage pain schem, the craftwas soon flying a search pattern.Goodall and Campbell scrambled forthe only cover available-a scrubbydesert tree. The Blackhawk descend-

84 • P O P U L A R S C IE IIC E M A R C H 1 9 9 4

ed, its downwash raising a hurricaneof dust and gravel. Then its landingskids crunched through the upperbranches, reducing the tree s h ightby half.Campbell took snapshots. "I was

looking through the helicopter's tloor

window right at the pilot," be says.Away climbed the Blackhawk. A sher-iff lat l" talked Campbell into surren-

dering bis film which remain ingov-ernment hands.Goodall filed complaints: to the ec-

retary of Defense, senators, congress-men, and safet.y officials at Nellis Air

Force Base-the closest identifiableplac to which a letter can be ad-dressed, Their replies discounted hisassertion that the frightening incidentcould have resulted in the destructionof everything-helicopter, crew, the tw o

campel and what was left ofthe tree,A typical response, written from the

Pentagon by A ir Force Colone l LeslieM. Dula, stated: "Helicopter opera-tions to protect and verify the securityofth ellis Range may appear abnor-mal to people not t: miliar with suchoperations, but the actions of the cr w

were not life-threatening nor risk en-

dangering lsic]."

O

n another night, wit.h our head-Lights of f and taillights discon-

nected so they won't flash whenthe brakes are applied, Jim Goodalland I pilot our 'lbyot.a Land Cruiseralong the dirt roads and bumpy trailsjust north of the base. For a few miles,we drive within the sight line of a se-urity post; then w pass behind somelow ridges. We head for a slope whereCampbell had earlier positioned aLarge military camouflage net.Shrouded in the netting, OUI' parkedtruck resembles another mound ofgre rush scrub in th partial moon-light. On foot, we lug our gear up thhill.Campbell bikes to our campsite the

next morning, and things on the sum-mi t remain peaceful until DO n, Thenwe hear the distant whumping of aBlackhawk. Adrenaline flows. This

aerial visit lasts four hours.We watch the Blackhawk circle be-

low us, then finally swoop down tosandblast a barren hillock about twomiles distant. Peering though hisbinoculars, Goodall is suddenly seizedw i h a laughing fit. "They'r assault-

ing my old lawn chair! I left it theremonths ago," 'ec:urity men emergefrom vehicles and take possession ofthe area near the chair, as the heli-copter widens its search pattern,sandblasting every clump of vegeta-

tion in the area.The search expands, covering sever-

al square miles. Eventually, Camp'bell s car, tucked into a ditch under agray cover, is sp tted. Sheriffs note it s

license number.We remain rolled up like armadillos

under small, gnarled evergreens,

where we weather dozens ofbelicopter

passes undetected. Finally, the securi-ty forces give up and leave.Definitely 110 secret. airptanes

tonight, we realize, so we decide 1 . 0

seek some real rood and hot showers.We retreat to the Little N Le'Tnn (pro-nounced "alien"), the sole wateringhole in the hamlet of Rachel. The bar'walls are covered with UFO memora-bilia and a large Goodall photo of thesecret base. "We heard someone pene-trated the base perimeter," says PatTravis, as she tak s ow' orders.Proprietors Pat and Joe Travis

serve food and drink to a mix of cow-boys, UFO buffs, and base workers.The latter are generally congenial butstrictly observe their secrecy vows: "I 'dtell you, but then I'd have to kill you,"they like to say if questioned aboutGroom Lake.We reflect on the day's experience.

One of our suspicions has been r in-forced: An electronic sensor Campbellfound by a muddy roadside afterspring rains almost certainly wasn'ton of a kind. 0 wonder security

truck and helicopters seemed to ap-peal' as ifon cue, day or night.Campbell later located 10 more sen-

sors along the dirt roads runningacross BLMland by using a frequencycounter an electronic devic that iden-tifies the broadcasting frequency of aradio transmitter. He also began un-screwing the antennas from the sen-SOl'S, driving past them, and then re-

placing the antennas-therebydefeating the devices. The sensors areinstalled in pairs, separated by a fe w

yards of road. Ground vibrationscaused by a passing vehicle trigger496.25-megahel-tz radio pulses from atransmitter wired to each pall', broad- .casting the vehicle s location and di-rection f travel.Two nights later, several of us ven-

ture out again. After an uneventfulevening watching from FreedomRidge, we fall asleep, At 2:00 a.m, vis-itors with blight fla hlights arrive: asheriff and a security guard in camou-flag. When the sheriff demands tosearch through our bags for cameras,

my companions stubbornly asserttheir civil liberties. The sheriff backsdown when we ask to see a warrant.Becaus the Groom Lake base is offi-cially unmentionable, a judge can' is-sue a warrant alleging infraction inthe vicinity; it's an odd Catch-22 thegovernment has concocted for itself.



We examine their identification, Lh

sheriff takes down om' names, and wesay good night.Getting back to sleep isn't easy, 50 I

pan across the landscape with a Rus-sian military night-vision scope, a us -ful gadget. when you want to know ifyou really are alone, I flinch. Two hun-dred yards away, a pair of securitymen sit in a beige truck, watching us.

They have a similar scope, Isuspect,of the costlier U.. military vari ty.Perhaps an infrared device a well,For' some time, we ob erve each otherin the dark. They've done a one job ofsneaking up on us. I fee] caught up ina scenario that's equal parts TomClancy, 'Ibm Swift, and 'Ibm Sawyer.

, e air base that isn,'t th,ere is hav-ng a rough year. The Ai r : Forceplan to annex the hilltops bas at-

tracted unwanted media attent.ion.And now Nevada Environmental Pro-tection Division officials are inv ti-

gating allegations that toxic chemicalsWere burned in open pits at GroomLake during the 19805, sickening

workers. Lockheed has previouslymade out-of-court settlements with

hundreds of peopl who were expos dto various chemicals while working onth e F -117 A program at its Burbank,Calif . , plant.Citizen curiosity about where un-

traceable, "black" defense dollar go isrunning strong. Lot of money j in-

volved. The Defense Budget Project anonpartisan monitoring group in

Washington, D.C., escimates that thes 4.1·billion 1994 defense budget forre €larch, development, and procure-ment contains $14.3 billion for ecretprograms. That approximates NASA's

entire annual budget.With the Cold War over and Rus-

sian satellite images of Groom Lakeavailable for purchase, airplane

watchers like Goodall, Campb I1 andAndrews question the military's need

for,additional security at Groom Lake.A nd even ifthe government decides tolet some light shin into its blackworld chances are slim that the per-istent watcher who keep hading

out into the desert will hang up theirbinoculars."The military needs to be reminded

that they own nothing out there, nei-

ther the airplane nor the facility. We,the p ople, are the true owners. Wpay for it all," Andrews argues withpassion, ''If the Air Force and otheragencies truly need this place, then let

them make their case in an open fo-rum and explain to u the rue naturof t he i r national security concerns. Wetaxpayers can handle it, perhaps bet.

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