Area 51

  Abstract Meant to be hidden from the public eye, Area 51 has been popularly known for its lack of transparency concerning its contents and purpose. This paper explores the idea that government secrecy has led to and promoted the conspiracies surrounding Area 51. The paper debunks the conspiracy theory regarding alien aircraft at Area 51, arguing that the base has not been conducting UFO research but simply testing AirForce aircraft. The paper comes to the conclusion that regardless of the government’s reasoning behind concealing the activities at Area 51, it has created distrust between the public and the government that only advances the conspiracy theories that have arisen. Keywords: Area 51, conspiracy theory, secrecy, government, spy planes, testing base, U-2, witness, UFO, aliens Works Cited Armstrong, Martin. "Belief in Conspiracy Theories in The United States." Statista , Statista Inc., 28 May 2019, https://www-statista-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/chart/18196/b...

  The documentary film I chose to view was Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers, which can be found on Netflix. Not only has Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers an essential source of information for my paper, but, individually it is an excellent documentary as well. The film takes its viewer through Robert Lazar’s entire journey of his claims of working with UFOs in S-4, from his first interview to what he is currently doing.  Arguably, the whole film includes meaningful quotes and a storyline that gives you an insight into Lazar’s life. However, one story stood out to me. Lazar is still facing the consequences of him coming out and detailing his experiences at S-4. The film showed Lazar’s laboratory being extensively raided by government officials, and this is not the first time something like this has happened. Incidents such as these have had an enormous impact on his life, which is why he no longer publicly tells his story as much as he used to. This interaction can al...

  Summary Annie Jacobsen’s “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base” discusses Area 51 in terms of it being a military base where the U.S. government develops surveillance technologies, such as spy aircraft. One section of the book that I decided to focus on was the discussion of the U-2 spy aircraft at Area 51. The book goes into detail, beginning from when the CIA discovered the land due to its remoteness. It then discusses the testing of U-2 at Area 51 and how it was later used to spy on various countries, which was successful. Later, it describes the downfall of the U-2 (a U-2 plane being taken down by the Soviet Union and the pilot of the plane being captured)  and how that led to the development and testing of other, more advanced aircraft, the A-12, and the F-117. Lastly, the book describes how the base was also used to test captured Soviet aircraft such as the MiG-21 and MiG-17. Author(s) The author of this book is Annie Jacobsen, who is no...

  My main research question is what exactly is in Area 51. When researching the topic, I found an overwhelming amount of information supporting the idea that Area 51 was used for the military’s testing site for technologies such as spy planes. After reading through the information and noticing that it is backed up by CIA documentation (which is now released) and numerous veterans, to me this information was the closest thing to the truth. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that Area 51 is likely a base used for the testing of military planes such as the U-2 and A-177. A source that I mainly use to showcase the counter-argument in my paper is a documentary, Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers . The documentary shows evidence that can lead viewers to believe that Area 51 is used for alien and UFO research. In short, the film discusses Bob Lazar, a physicist who claims to have worked on reverse-engineering a UFO at S-4, a facility a part of Area 51. Although some of Lazar...

  One of the cases I will be using is the U-2 spy plane (pictured above.) Initially,  the land on Area 51 was a mining area, specifically for silver and lead. This was up until the late 1800s, and at the beginning of World War II, the government noticed the land because of its remoteness. Groom Lake, which is a dry lake located within Area 51, was used to practice bombs. Fast forward to 1955, post World War II, the CIA with Lockheed Aircraft wanted to build spy planes, the U-2, to spy on the Soviet Union. The U-2 was being designed and developed by Kelly Johnson and other engineers from Lockheed. The U-2 had technology that would help serve its purpose; it needed minimum energy, flew beyond the Soviet radar, and had cameras that could pick up even minuscule things. Before this time, testing of such aircraft was done at Edwards Air Force Base in California but, it wasn’t considered ideal as it was not secluded; because of this, they wanted an area that was away from the publ...

  One of the most extensive academic ideas I will be using is the use of secrecy and how it is used to cover the national security state and possibly, alien technology. Regardless of what side of the conspiracy theory one looks at, the concept of concealment is involved. If Area 51 is a base where the government tests military technologies, “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base” discusses that the idea of UFOs may be used to cover the development of the surveillance technologies being developed. Additionally, there was concealment and secrecy involved in the testing of the aircrafts at Area 51. There had to be secrecy as the United States couldn’t afford the Soviet Union and other competing countries to find out what technologies they had been working on. If Area 51 is a place of UFO research, then the government has been concealing the truth for many decades, and Lazar had t have kept quiet about some matters as well, as seen in the “Bob Lazar: Ar...

Summary The documentary Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers takes viewers through Bob Lazar’s journey and all his claims. Bob Lazar is a physicist who claims to have worked on a UFO at S-4, a facility a part of Area 51. The filmmaker, Corbell, discusses various claims with Lazar. One of the prominent claims was of the hand scanner which Bob Lazar described years ago, but people failed to believe him. Years later, Corbell found a photograph of such a scanner, and Lazar confirmed that it was used in S-4. Additionally, throughout the documentary, Lazar went through great detail on how the aircraft he reverse-engineered worked. One particular discussion he had was about the propulsion of the aircraft that was a reactionless force, basically manipulated space and time to help the aircraft move forward. In addition to all the claims, viewers also got an insight into Lazar’s personal life as well. The documentary had brief interviews with his wife, mother, and some friends. It showed whe...