Area 51

[masssiveego]

I've heard it was a long dirt road this unmarked until you get up to the Air Force installation sign.
Before you run into the white unmarked trucks that basically get you arrested for tresspassing.
Has anybody really thought of Area 51, or seen what kind of things that go on around that area?

[Hertzila]

IMHO it's simply a top secret air force research facility. No aliens or such stuff but instead other cutting-edge secret tech. Stealth crafts, UAAV and similar stuff, with the possibility of some tech "our very own" PHALANX had researched before closing.

That or it really is just an air force base. The area 51 myth could have been formed because of its "far-from-everything" location. Because of this it would also be a convenient distraction for the real secret labs.

Ps. All the big countries are bound to have some secret labs somewhere. Making better equipment in secret is better than in public (spies and such).

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm answering that "thinking" part, as I've never been in USA.

[weekendwarriora1c]

Back when it WAS still a secret, it was called Groom Lake, later called Area-51.

Here it is on Google Maps.  They picked the area because it is close to military artillery and bomb ranges, far from population centers, and the lake bed is a long, long flat space that doesn't take much work to turn into a runway.  In 1955, the U-2 was being tested there, by 62, the SR-71 (A12-Oxcart) was being flown there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Groom+Lake,+NV&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.355924,113.818359&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Groom+Lake&ll=37.247411,-115.796242&spn=0.101802,0.222301&t=h&z=13

It really is just an Air Force base.  Yes, the projects were classified, no, they don't shoot people for driving up to the base.  If you tried to ram the gate and bypass the checkpoint, or jump a fence you might get shot, but that would happen at any military base, and probably only after you refused to comply.

Read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51