Tim and company:

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post anything about the Boneyard before that guy peppered you with so many questions. I have been in Las Vegas all week attending a reunion of folks (CIA, USAF, and contractor) who used to work at Area 51. It is always an excellent opportunity to collect the real story of the Test Site. As far as collecting information, it can be likened to "drinking from a fire hose."

The Area 51 Boneyard is a complex consisting of an open storage yard and a few buildings. I assume they don't leave anything interesting exposed to satellite photography. It is located on Pistol range Road. (Yes, that is the actual name. It heads west from Hill Road below the Southend complex.)

The HAVE BLUE airframes are not in the Boneyard. They were buried. One of the Lockheed guys says he thinks it is now under a road. They were trying to find the burial site so they could dig them up and restore Article 1001 for display.

According to another Lockheed guy, there is a M113 armored personnel carrier in the Boneyard. It was used as a tie-down to anchor HAVE BLUE during engine tests. One night, he "borrowed" the M113 and drove it up to the door of Sam's Place (the bar/recreation center) and parked it so no one could get out the door.

Originally posted by Shadowhawk
Tim and company:

The HAVE BLUE airframes are not in the Boneyard. They were buried. One of the Lockheed guys says he thinks it is now under a road. They were trying to find the burial site so they could dig them up and restore Article 1001 for display.

I have heard about the HAVE BLUE airframes being buried. I Just thought they were buried INSIDE of the Boneyard. Why where they Buried outside of the Bone Yard? Could they be under the road that leads into the Boneyard?

Tim

He thought it might be buried under a road that was paved (or repaved) near the Southend, not far from the hangars. The problem was that nobody could remember exactly where they had buried it. They tried digging in a number of places and found SENIOR PROM tail fins and other stuff they weren't supposed to dig up, but no HAVE BLUE.

He said they planned to restore HB1001 (the first article) and put it on a pole in front of base HQ or OPS. I would rather see it in the Air Force Museum.

Originally posted by Shadowhawk
He thought it might be buried under a road that was paved (or repaved) near the Southend, not far from the hangars. The problem was that nobody could remember exactly where they had buried it. They tried digging in a number of places and found SENIOR PROM tail fins and other stuff they weren't supposed to dig up, but no HAVE BLUE.

He said they planned to restore HB1001 (the first article) and put it on a pole in front of base HQ or OPS. I would rather see it in the Air Force Museum.

Intresting! So, noone really know for sure where the Have Blue is buried. I've never heard about the idea of putting the Have Blue on display. IMHO if they were to restore it for desplay, the Have Blue should either go to the Air Force Museum or maybe even the Smithsonian (like they did with the Blackbird). The Research they did with that aircraft lead to a huge step forward in aerospace technology, just like the X-1. Do you realize how stealth aircraft have changed air warfare?

Tim

Originally posted by ghost

A-12/YF-12/SR-71

The true successor to the U-2, the mach 3 SR-71 flies at 90,000 feet, uses 8,000 gallons of fuel per hour and has outrun countless SAMs.

Is that fuel quote correct? Seems they would need constant refueling to the point where they couldn't really exploit their speed.