Groom Lake Hush House

You may recall these blue curved pieces of metal on the Groom Lake runway that I shot in 2010.
www.lazygranch.com...
Which also showed up on Google Earth.
www.lazygranch.com...

Bing has new Groom Lake imagery, and the completed Hush House is shown:
www.lazygranch.com...
Here is the same spot on Google Earth, showing the area under construction:
www.lazygranch.com...

For comparison, here are the same Hush Houses at Nellis AFB:
www.lazygranch.com...

This is an article from the USAF explaining the Hush House use:
www.nellis.af.mil...

eh... .....ok




good picts

can you give more info?

reply to post by EvilBat


More info? This is Groom Lake. It is the black hole of information. ;-)

Now there is always the question as to what you can infer goes on at Groom Lake based on behavior at other air force bases. That is why I included the link from Nellis. But Nellis has residents living nearby. Why they need a Hush House at Groom Lake is beyond me other than it provides some protection (cover) for the person working on the engine. I suppose noise is of some concern to the buildings nearby, plus the upward deflection prevents the jet engine from kicking up dust. You can occasionally here engine tests if you hang out at the front gate and conditions are right.

Here is what happens when you run an engine in the desert without a deflector:


If you pulled that kind of crap on a construction site, the feds wouldn't be too happy. While dust storms are natural, the feds take a dim view of you making one yourself. So maybe some authority suggested that Groom behave more like a legit Air Force operation rather than the wild wild west we don't need no stinkin' badges outfit that it was prior to the EPA lawsuit.

Interesting. I'm surprised you didn't get that many people for this thread. Cool images. Those blue things look like tremors coming out of the ground. What are those things? A fence?

I'd say they definitely have some secret advanced technology there, captured from various incidents.
Or thats what they want os to think so we think the gubberment is very powerfull.
Neither way, I want to know

Looks like I helped bumped your thread a bit.

Good Luck.

Maybe a new engine for the NGB

reply to post by Manhater


The blue things on the runway are now the curved part of the Hush House. They put all the parts on the abandoned runway either for sorting or maybe painting.

maybe some authority suggested that Groom behave more like a legit Air Force operation rather than the wild wild west we don't need no stinkin' badges outfit that it was prior to the EPA lawsuit.

Cool find thanks for posting Always wondered what those were the few times I had seen them.

The Blue panels kind of look like a bunch of Chaise Lounges in the Google earth shot.

Good stuff!

What kind of plane can do engine test in this Hush house? I think its too small for a bomber type of plane, may be for a fighter size experimental aircraft.

reply to post by darksidius


A hush house is an enclosed, noise suppressed, aircraft jet engine testing facility for the testing of installed or uninstalled jet engines under actual load conditions. The engines tested in such facilities are generally suspended from overhead thrust frames.

Here, let me show you how I found that out.....

Click This....

Why they built it on the north of the base, there is no huge hangar near to stock an experimental plane?

There are four large hangars and a few smaller ones on the North Parking Ramp. The total hangar space is more than sufficient for an entire fleet of experimental planes. The need to maintain the Red Hats squadron alone more than justifies the construction of a hush house.

reply to post by Shadowhawk


It isn't entirely clear to me if the hush house is for testing engines not installed in the aircraft, or both bare engines and engines mounted to the airframe. If you have seen Operation Red Flag, they show an engine being tested at one of the Nellis hush houses that is not mounted on the airframe.

Any speculation from anybody in this thread as to what the hush house will be used for aircraft testing wise. Or do you guys think this hush house will be used for just about every type of engine testing from little engines used on drones, to whatever the hell they are using to thrust the aurora?

reply to post by BASSPLYR


Why bother "hushing" at all. I was at the Nellis fence Thursday morning and they were blasting some engine from a hangar, not bothering to use any of their hush houses. This was very loud over by the speedway. Then they blew something up off in the distance.

engine test at Nellis

The plane under test takes a bit of effort to locate. Find the two guys in the lower right hand corner. Then look at the truck to their right. The plane under test is to the right of that truck. You can see the helicopter is in the direct jet exhaust, turning the area blurry.

This is the dust cloud from the explosion:
kaboom

So my point is if this kind of nonsense is fine for a base with population around it, who cares what they do in the desert?

Now you can hear engine tests at the Groom Lake front gate area, but it isn't like nobody doesn't know there is an airbase beyond the hills.

May be this hush house is to protect the people on the base, about a ne w type of very noisy engine.

It doesn't matter whether the surrounding area is populated or not. Hush houses are common at many Air Force bases. In 2008, the estimated number of installations that have hush houses at Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Reserves, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army bases exceeded 100. There is one at Edwards even though it is in the middle of nowhere, but security is as much of an issue as noise abatement. According to one DoD report, "The structure allows continuous maintenance on all manner of military aircraft that could only previously be conducted outside or in open hangars, potentially disturbing surrounding communities, and occurring in sight of prying eyes."

The air intake and exhaust systems of indoor engine test cells and hush houses are designed to optimize the engine air flows, and to discharge cooled jet exhaust through a vertical stack. Supposedly, the intake and exhaust systems have silencers to reduce noise transmitted to the surrounding outdoor area, but I have to say that it doesn't seem to keep the noise down all that much. Military aircraft produce high-decibel sound, particularly in the afterburning mode. For example, a F-4 Phantom creates a noise level of 123.5 decibels adjusted (dBA) at 250 feet at regular military power and 130.6 dBA in afterburner mode. An F-16 creates a noise level of 122.0 dBA in military power mode and 129.3 dBA in afterburner mode. During an engine run in a hush house, people in the nearby surrounding area feel a bone-rattling, deep, low hum. I find it exceedingly unpleasant.

There are two basic types of aircraft acoustical enclosures: the hush house, and the test cell. Hush houses are hangar-like structures designed for testing air-driven jet engines, including turbojet, turbofan, turboprop, and turboshaft engines. A jet engine test cell is usually an indoor engine testing facility designed only for out-of-frame testing of aircraft engines. These test cells are constructed from concrete, have an intake stack, test enclosure, a blast augmenter, and an exhaust ramp and/or stack. There are two engine test cells at the southernmost end of the Area 51 complex that were originally built to support the OXCART program. Judging from recent satellite images, they appear to remain available for use. The hush house on the north end can accommodate aircraft with the engines installed, allowing four integrated testing. Engine maintenance has always been a challenge for the Red Hats programs at Area 51 due to the paucity of spare parts for the foreign aircraft, and engine performance testing is an important part of any aircraft evaluation program.