The expansion of the Groom Lake facility has been well documented through observations from Tikaboo Peak and by comparison of overheard satellite imagery taken in recent years.

The pictures show that between 1990 and 2005:

The waste burial trenches that resulted in the lawsuit were cleaned up.

The main runway was replaced with a new airstrip.

Concrete parking areas for aircraft have been torn up and replaced.

The South Delta taxiway was converted to a runway.

A new Center Taxiway was constructed.

The Arm/De-arm Scoot-N-Hide hangar was tripled in length.

A new hangar was constructed on the South Ramp.

New support facilities and infrastructed were built.

Old temporary office trailers were replaced with permanent structures.

Aging tanks at the fuel farm were replaced.

Through all of this, large numbers of personnel have been seen to enter and exit the base, projects have been unveiled (TACIT BLUE, Bird of Prey) and rumored (YF-113G, YF-24), land surrounding the perimeter has been seized and presidents have renewed legislation to preserve the secrecy of operations at the site.

Any aircraft, be it terrestrial or not, that cannot be explained is, by definition, an "unidentified flying object". It's a bold statement to make that A51 has nothing to do with UFO's. Infact, it has everything to do with them and by being a highly guarded (ex)secret of the US Government it has unintentionally drawn attention to itself and fuelled one of the longest running UFO debates of our time.

Its down to the individual to determine and play the guessing game of its purpose and origins.



[edit on 11-1-2006 by timb3r]

Originally posted by timb3r
Any aircraft, be it terrestrial or not, that cannot be explained
is, by definition, an "unidentified flying object".
It's a bold statement to make that A51 has nothing to do
with UFO's. Infact, it has everything to do with them...

That aircraft is only a UFO until it's identified.
There are no aircraft at A-51 that are UN-identified.
You and I may not know that they are because they're
still in the test phase. But that doesn't make them
unidentified. A-51 has nothing to do with UFO's,
terrestrial or otherwise. It's a testing area for
the nation's top secret aircraft.


Sarge

I think you missed the irony of my point

Originally posted by Flinx
I seriously doubt the stealths the SR-71, or the U-2 would have been confused with an alien spacecraft. Well, maybe a spaceship out of Buck Rogers, but not a traditional UFO/flying saucer. If anything these planes might have been responsible for "Aurora" sightings.

But, Flinx, the SR-71 has been retired for many years now, and the numbers of Aurora sightings are growing every day. The U-2 looks nothing like the Aurora sighting descriptions.

Most people don't think Area 51 is an alien hot spot. Most people (such as myself) believe that the base is more limited to projects such as to secret air craft and weapons. Possibly genetic and viral testing, but not likely as Dulce is more famous for its supposed Human Testing projects.

Originally posted by SgtCamo


What kind of information do you have that suggests
the base is expanding?


Sarge

Well, The base has lengthened one of its main runways to almost 6 miles... and the smaller runwa was prepared.

The so-called "six-mile-long runway" is no longer used. It was built in 1960 as an 8,500-foot-long concrete strip with an asphalt overrun onto the lakebed. The overrun was for emergency landings only and not intended for operational use. The concrete strip was extended about 5,000 feet on the south end during the 1980s because of flooding on the north end, near the lakebed edge. The north half of the concrete strip was closed in the 1990s and a second airstrip was built just to the east. Eventually the entire length of the original airstrip and extension was closed. The new airstrip became the main runway. South Delta Taxiway also became a runway a few years ago.