WEBVTT - How Area 51 Works 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.680 Hello, Minneapolis in d C. It's me Josh, and I'm 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:06.120 coming to perform the End of the World or How 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.119 I Learned to Start Worrying and Love Humanity, my solo 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.960 live show, and I think you're gonna like it. Times 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.520 running out, though, so go to the Parkway Theater dot 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.239 com for Minneapolis tickets and the Miracle Theater dot com 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:24.520 for DC tickets. See you on June. In June, Welcome 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:26.800 to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:35.520 Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.840 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.279 and there's Dylan the guest producer again. And this is 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:52.320 it's the podcast about Chuck. Some pretty heavy stuff. Yeah. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.520 I could have sworn we did this one. What do 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.480 we do roswell no UFOs? Yes, we did that at 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.560 a comicconn or something, right, Yeah we did. We did alive. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.920 I've never been satisfied with that one. I agree. Maybe 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.319 we'll redo it one day. Yeah, this is good. This 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.600 this this area fifty one. UM. I think this kind 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.600 of covers some ground that I didn't think. I was 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.720 surprised by. This is what I'm saying. Yeah, me too. 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.080 And I think the thing that I would wager you 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.600 were surprised about, which I was definitely surprised about, was 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.319 just how mundane the explanations for what goes on at 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:34.240 Area fifty one probably is secret government research the end, right, 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.760 but it probably doesn't have anything to do with reverse 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:42.280 engineering alien technology, and the secret seat of the one 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.800 World Government, the Majestic twelve, probably isn't located there. Probably 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.280 just bombs and planes. Probably it makes sense. And the 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.760 if there is a conspiracy going on, the one conspiracy 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.800 theory I saw for Area fifty one that made the 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.240 most sense to me is that it's actually meant to 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.720 be a distress action or has developed into a distraction 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.559 for some other place that no one even knows about. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:11.280 A maybe maybe hopefully they're not quite that on the nose, 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.400 but it's possible. All right. So let's go back in time, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:21.399 I guess, um to World War two, and well, first 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.160 of all, Area fifty one, just to geographically level set, 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.160 it's um less than a hundred miles from Las Vegas 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:32.200 in Nevada, South South Nevada. Yeah, it's six hundred square 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.840 miles um. And it's basically if you look at it 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.320 on Google Earth. It looks like a you know, a 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.079 big air field with a bunch of buildings, so that 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.200 I think the whole restricted airspace that's part of like 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.760 the test range and the air base and all of 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.600 that stuff that are the Area fifty one is located in. 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.240 I think that's six square miles. I'm pretty sure Area 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.040 fifty one itself is no more than sixties square miles. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.600 Oh yeah, sure, just that, like the it's not like 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.240 they're six centered square miles of buildings, right, it's just that. Yeah, 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.200 the the installation that people think of as Area fifty 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.440 one is part of a larger, huge, big chunk of 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:16.240 the American desert in Nevada, right. So, uh, next to 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:18.520 Area fifty one is what's what you were kind of 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.519 talking about, the Nevada Test Site. And this is where 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.640 for about ten or eleven years, the Atomic Energy Commission 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:32.600 UM was setting off nuclear bombs um underground, above ground 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.440 and really sort of figuring out how to kill a 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.400 lot of people very easily and sort of the most 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.200 dangerous way you could imagine. Yeah, and you could see 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.000 this from Vegas like they would have parties when they 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.600 were doing the test because Vegas is like eighty miles 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.280 away or something like that, and they would have like 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.600 atomic cocktails and viewing parties and stuff like that, and 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.880 people would watch them shoot off bombs. Right. Um, but 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:02.600 this is obviously a part of the country that the 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.960 government would be very interested in keeping people away from, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.480 not just for the bombs, but because of the um 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.880 the fallout, the radiation, but also the fact that they're 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:18.359 testing like supersensitive military equipment and um weapons, right, like 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.800 atomic bombs. Yeah. Like, previous to this, it was just land. 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.160 It was there were silver mines, it was cattle and wildlife. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.760 But then the government said no, this is ours, and 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.440 we're going to train bombers here. Uh. And there was 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.000 a big bombing range and they were split into different numbers, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.839 and that's where the number Area fifty one comes from, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.160 which seems I don't know about arbitrary, but no one 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.600 knows if it really matters why it was named area one. No, 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.839 I think it was. If you look at old bombing 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.839 range maps, just the area where Area fifty one is 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.960 located was denoted as area between fifty and fifty two 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.880 is probably the answer. Yeah, that's basically from what I saw, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.200 that was it. Yeah, so uh, there's another part to 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.720 this story. With World War two and this is Germany. Um, 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:07.800 they were a bit ahead of us as far as 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:12.279 jets go. Um, jet airplanes. Um. The United States is like, 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.800 this won't do it all. So we're gonna get um 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.800 kind of put the gas on our jet development. And 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.440 in nineteen forty three, lock keyed Um said was was 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.960 tasked with developing a jet fighter plane you can use 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.160 a British jet engine. Uh, And they tasked engineer Kelly 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.880 Johnson said get a team together. He got a team 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.200 together and they delivered the P eight Shooting Star, which 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.440 is one of the coolest looking old jets all the 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:43.039 all these planes are just amazing looking. Agreed. It's a 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.160 good idea when we talk about a new jet or something, 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.160 go look it up as we're talking about because most 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:49.240 of them are pretty boss looking. Yeah. I've never been 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:51.320 a plane guy, but I'm getting more and more into it. 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.560 Is that right? Yeah? I want to do a stealth 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.920 bomber episode one day. Okay, possibly the coolest plane. Yeah. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.000 So um, Kelly Johnson is a that that just that 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.799 right there. Delivering America's first jet on like under time 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.760 and under budget was huge and he became a legendary 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.320 engineer right off the bat UM and they, I think 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.840 Lockheed said, hey, how would you like to keep this 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.800 pace up. We'll give you your team of elite engineers, 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.159 whatever funding you need, whatever resources you need, just ask 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.840 you can have it UM and you just keep developing 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.760 stuff really quickly for us UM and we will put 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.480 you at the cutting edge of aviation research. And so 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.560 Kelly Johnson and his team eventually became known as the 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.440 Skunk Works, which is legendary in aviation engineering because they 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.440 developed a whole bunch of really cool stuff, but also 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.799 they had a pretty great name too that was fairly intriguing. 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:50.920 But they were the first ones to kind of basically 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.440 develop agile project management from what I understand, YEA. And 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.520 this was all out of the what was known as 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.159 Site One, which was in Burbank, California, UM just sort 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.720 of a suburb of l A. But then in nineteen 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.920 fifty four they said, you know what we need now 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.360 is a spy plane. The CIA wants a spy plane. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.720 We want something that can fly above radar um and 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:20.400 photograph Soviet military bases, missile installations. We're gonna name it 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:25.920 because we name everything Project aquatone, and that's where Johnson 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.640 and his team developed the U two UM the skunk 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.480 Works team, but they couldn't do this at Site one 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.080 anymore because it had to be super super secret obviously 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.280 because it was a spy plane, so they needed a 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.400 different place. And that's where that sort of all converges 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.360 onto this testing site in Nevada. Yeah, Kelly Johnson, uh 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.800 CIA officer named Richard Bissell and a couple of pilots 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.760 started scouting locations for where they could develop this in 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.920 super super secret and they went to look at the 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.920 old um out of test range, and specifically, the thing 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.240 that attracted them was a dry salt lake called Groom Lake, 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.840 and one of the pilots recounted taking some like sixteen 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.760 pounds shot put balls and dropping him on the ground 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.240 to see just how sandy the ground was and it 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.040 he said, it was solid as a tabletop. This lake 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.480 was the dry lake there like this will probably do. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.280 And there's a lot of reasons why it would do, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.280 not just because there was a dry lake bed that 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.000 was as hard as concrete, but because it was in 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.400 an area that was already off limits to the public. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.000 Um the airspace was already restricted. It was remote. UM. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.880 There are two mountain ranges that shield the UM the 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.400 test site from view. So this area, what became known 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:51.160 as Area fifty one, was just perfect for developing a 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.200 super secret spy plane in super secret and so the 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.920 CIA and UM the Skunkworks team said this will do. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.760 Let's take this place over. Well, tell you about one 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:02.080 of the most fun things I ever got to do 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.840 as a p A. What wait, didn't weren't you arrested 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.600 by Ericastrada as you're gonna say, oh no, that stopped 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:13.560 in UM we did a car shoot on a dry 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:18.000 lake bed in Death Valley and they had like a big, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.400 huge line of cars in a row, all driving in 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.000 perfect synchronicity, and the director wasn't happy, and they were like, 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.440 we want all the dust is behind them. He went, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.520 I want dust in front of them. So the a 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.280 d ran and grabbed the keys to a mustang, threw 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.880 them to me and he said, get in that mustang 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.880 and drive a hundred feet in front of them as 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.720 fast as you can, fish tailing and doing donuts and stuff. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.200 That was like me, yeah, oh man, it was so 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:46.960 much fun because it's a dry lake bed it's like 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.839 there's just no fear of hitting anything or flipping, Like 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.679 you could just do whatever you wanted. It was wonderful. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:56.400 It was so much fun. Did you didn't hit a 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:00.360 jack rabbit or anything? Did you, uh, just a couple? No, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:02.000 it was fine, it was It was a lot of fun. 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.640 So well was the last thing he said, Yeah, the 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.360 last thing while I was talking about how amazingly perfect 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.000 one is for developing a super secret spy plane. Yeah. 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.080 So they called it Paradise Ranch, and the locals around 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.199 there they were used to because of all the atomic 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.000 bomb testing. It kind of worked out because they weren't 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:22.800 gonna first of all, it was in the middle of nowhere, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.960 but even the nearby communities, the ones that were close enough, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.560 it just wasn't on anyone's radar because they had always 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.120 been doing weird things out there, so it's not like 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.320 it it pricked up anyone's ears. So it was kind 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.000 of the perfect cover to be there at Paradise Ranch 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.120 doing these development of these spy planes and stuff, right, right, 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.959 they so. But in addition to that, the cover story 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.960 initially that the CIA produced was that they were a 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:54.400 team of um bomb experts who were cleaning up unexploded 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.560 munitions from the time when it was used as a 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.800 bombing range. So that was why that was the story 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:01.679 that used for why there's a sudden appearance of like 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.959 trucks and people when there there hadn't been really much 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:09.320 of anything there before. Yeah, they're they're also natural barriers. 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.280 There were a couple of mountain ranges that kind of 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.680 shielded it from view. Um, it was already remote, the 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.400 airspace was already restricted. And then Eisenhower came along and 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:25.119 signed Executive Order UH one zero six N which basically 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.800 extended the airspace over area, and then in ninety eight 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:35.040 a public land order made this basically said that this 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.280 area doesn't exist anymore. It's not on maps, it's not acknowledged. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.080 And this is one of the huge reasons why site 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:48.760 to the Ranch Area fifty one has been so um 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.800 and and we'll see later things have changed a little 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.200 bit in recent years. But just for the government to say, like, 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.520 I don't know what you're talking about over and over again, 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.480 it's sort of crazy making it is, but they would 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.560 as we'll see you later. They will they would say 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.439 an open court, this the the place where this person 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.400 claims to work does not exist. Like in court, and um, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.160 the judge would just be like, what do you how 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.080 what how are we going to get around this? This 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.000 is a real problem. Um. But that from what I read, Chuck, 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:26.640 originally Area fifty one was CIA installation, and around seventy 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.440 it transferred hands to the Air Force. But from from 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.920 what I could tell, up until that point, or at 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.000 least the first several years in the mid to late 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:40.199 fifties and early sixties, UM, no one had any idea 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.080 that Area fifty one existed. They did a really good 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.000 job of keeping that place a genuine secret, not an 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.160 open secret like it became later on, but a real secret. 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:51.920 And one of the ways that they did that was 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.720 they they from from what workers later said in like 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.120 testimony in court cases, is that like they would be 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.520 interrogated at gum point to see if they were actually spies. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.800 There were all sorts of like weird loyalty tests and 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.960 things like that, and UM, while they were working on 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.600 the you Tube spy plane in particular, they kept that 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:16.520 secret so serious that if you were out there working, um, 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.760 and you had nothing to do with the YouTube program, 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.560 you were just a worker. You were working on a 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.920 different program. They would move you indoors, close the doors, 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.880 closed the blinds on the windows before rolling the You 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.520 two out or testing it, like you were not allowed 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.080 to be outside or look. Yeah, that that was pretty 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:37.480 like remarkable. Like within Area fifty one they even had 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.360 subsecurity protocols in place. Um, I kind of just figured 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.240 like if you were in there, then you had access 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.960 to the alien room, right, you know, all the good stuff. Right. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.959 But but think about that, because to even be on 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.559 the base or in Area one, you had to have 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.800 the highest level of security clearance you could possibly have 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.720 just to work on there. And even if you had that, 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.360 you still couldn't see the You two Spy plane or 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.599 know that it existed or hear people talk about it. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.280 They wouldn't even let Bono in on it. So that 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.440 was a terrible joke. It was really bad. I was 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.960 really hoping we can't get around that one. So the 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.560 You two Spy plane was great until it wasn't. And 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:25.480 that was when Francis gary Powers was shot down in 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.360 nineteen sixty and the plane was all of a sudden 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.000 in the hand of the Soviets, and uh, they basically 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.560 were like, well that's the end of that. You can't 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.440 have a secret spy plane anymore once it's in the 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.080 hand of the Soviets. And it was also a big 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.600 deal because, uh, the American people all of a sudden 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.720 knew that the US government is definitely doing things in 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.240 total secret and developing technology that no one knows about. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.800 It was a surprise to everybody, not just the Soviets, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.480 but also the American public, like you were saying too. 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.760 And I looked to see if this was looked upon 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.160 by historians. Is like the point where Americans realized that 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.080 the government did things in secret that the American public 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.240 didn't know about. And I didn't see anything like that. 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:09.800 So I don't know if this is an ed comment 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.760 or what, but it makes sense. And certainly people didn't 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.440 know that the U two spy plane existed. The CIA 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.880 did a really good job of keeping it secret, but 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.280 when it was out, um, it was pretty humiliating for 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.320 the US. And it was also a big deal that 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.600 this spy plane was shot down because I Eisenhower had 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.960 approached Kruschev Krischev and said, hey, why don't we maintain 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.680 an open air space policy to one another so we 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.640 can keep tabs to make sure that either side is 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.800 keeping our word with our you know, armament treaties and 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.640 the stuff we're doing like we're enemies, but um, maybe 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.360 we should kind of be able to keep tabs on 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.760 one another. And Krischev said, no, there's not gonna be 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.880 any open air space policy. And so that the United 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.400 States went and developed this you two spy plane instead, 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.400 and when it got shot down flying over restricted airspace 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.440 of an enemy, that's an act of war and it 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.320 could have gone way differently than it did, but instead 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.360 it was a big humiliation for the United States. And 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.120 instead of this kind of tucking tail and running, the 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.000 guy who was in charge of it for the CIA, 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.560 Richard Bissell, went to the government and said, Hey, I've 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.480 got an idea. Let's get even more secret and develop 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.960 an even more secretive plane under an even more secretive project. 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.520 And that the government said, hey, let's do it. We're 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.640 scared of the Russians. Will double down. We'll triple down 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.040 if you want, buddy, And that became Project ox Cart. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.200 That's right, uh, And that was a black project, and 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.440 it was so secret and so concealed that no one 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.800 was even allowed to know how much money was being spent. Yeah, 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.440 this is a big, big turning point here. It was, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.360 I mean, this kind of started the era that we 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.160 still live in today, which in which the military just 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:58.240 dumps money into secret projects where there's um that that 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.600 don't exist as far as anyone is, and that there's 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.480 very little oversight for right, exactly interesting. Yeah, and apparently 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.800 it was this Richard Bissell's idea. All right, well, let's 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:12.000 take a break old Dick Bissell and we'll we'll get 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.040 back to Dick Bissell and the rest of ox Cart 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:41.320 right after this. So one of the problems with I 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.600 guess it's not a problem if you're comfortable with dumping 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.720 money into a project. But one of the I guess 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.320 expenses of a super super secret project is that it 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.880 just costs a lot more. Um. Background checks take time 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.919 and cost money. Uh, putting something in a super remote 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.720 location cost money, um, having extra security forces and it 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.200 all just cost a lot more money. I mean, it's 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.200 a it's a serious multiplier on cost to do something 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.600 that quote unquote doesn't exist. Right. But in addition to that, 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.240 Chuck two is just the fact that, uh, the technology 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:19.119 that was being developed was so cutting edge, it's just 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.320 by definition required even more money on top of the 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.639 extra money for it being so super secret. Yeah. So 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.800 ox Card eventually led to the SR seventy one Blackbird, 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.640 another amazingly cool plane, probably the coolest of all time 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.560 if you ask me. Yeah, I said the stealth Barmber earlier, 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.560 but the SR seventy one is that it was pretty awesome, 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.000 although there is another one later on that I'll I'll mention. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.560 Uh well, I'll go ahead and say the Bird of 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.640 Prey stealth jet. You like that one, Huh, that's pretty cool. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.440 It looks a little bit like a super cool tongue depressor. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.680 You know what I'm talking about. I know what a 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.880 tongue depressor is. This looks like that, like a flying 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.200 gray tongue depressor. It's like a opsacle stick though, right, um, yeah, 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:07.359 but wider. Okay, But the SR seventy one Blackbird definitely 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.840 not a popsicle stick. No, No, it's just cool. Plus, 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.240 it doesn't hurt the fact that G. I. Joe Well 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.840 Cobra technically had the SR seventy one Blackbird as one 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:22.639 of their planes. That's funny. Uh So oxcart um they 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:27.119 needed better infrastructure basically, and it was they couldn't just 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:29.920 pour money into the development of the jet. At this point, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.840 they had to really update all the facilities, expanding on land, 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.880 expanding and more restricted airspace. Even that happened in nineteen two, 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.440 and it just sort of, I think, ingrained the super 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.840 permanence of Area fifty one. And also like the fact that, 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.800 like the government said, no, okay, this was a humiliating 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:51.960 thing to have a YouTube shot down. Rather than maybe 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.760 we'll just kind of take another tack, they really went 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:00.639 further down the path of just completely secret black projects 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.920 and they developed some pretty pretty amazing stuff there. Um 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.600 the uh I think you were saying the Bird of 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.040 Prey that was from the nineties, right, Yeah, I think 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.000 it's cool looking. The F one seventeen Nighthawk, that's the 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.600 one that's like a single wing stealth bomber. I believe, yes. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.080 And this is also where they take and um, like 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:24.919 if you capture an enemy plane, you will take that 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.840 to area to check out as well. Yeah, there's another 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:34.040 program at right Patterson Base in Dayton that's like set 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.240 up specifically for that. But I wonder if this is 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.960 like even more highly sensitive. I don't know, Um, but yeah, 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.919 they've captured Miggs before, captured radar systems and they reverse 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:49.000 engineered him there, which will come into play you later on. Um. 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.360 And then there was another one called the Tacit Blue 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:57.480 stealth Bombers. So basically, any stealth aircraft, whether it was 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.160 the stealth black Hawks or the stealth bombers that were 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:06.320 developed from the sixties onward, Um, it was probably developed 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:11.959 and tested in super secrecy in area right. So, like 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.840 I said, this made it just sort of a shop 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.520 that they would that wouldn't close essentially at this point, um, 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.960 in that there's an area known as Freedom Ridge. Very 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.040 ironic name because Freedom Ridge was taken by the government 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.720 right and closed off to the public. And this is 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:34.440 where uh tinfoil hats used to gather with their binoculars 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.440 to try and check out things, and they said no more, 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.600 Freedom Ridge is now ours. It's called get out of 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:46.800 here Ridge. Yeah, shot on site Ridge. That's right. So, um, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:48.879 if you are like get to the Aliens, what are 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.399 you guys even talking about the aliens and Area fifty 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.680 one as synonymous as they are now, and they are synonymous. 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.159 The highway that Area fifty one is off of the 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.119 road Area fifty one is off of has been officially 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.440 renamed by the state of Nevada as the Extraterrestrial Highway. 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:09.359 It's Highway three oh five, as synonymous as this base 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.560 is with aliens and UFOs. That's actually relatively recent. It 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:20.120 was operating for a good thirty five years, I think, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:26.399 um before Aliens became tied to Area fifty one. And 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.480 there's actually a moment in time that you can point 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.640 to where it happened. Then it happened on a broadcast 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.800 in May of nine, almost just past thirty years ago 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.320 on k l as, the local Las Vegas um TV network. 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:43.840 I'm not sure what network affiliate they are, but they 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:45.960 had like their five o'clock news, and on it they 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.560 interviewed a guy who was anonymous, went by the pseudonym Dennis, 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.760 and he basically said, Hey, I'm doing a lot of 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:55.080 weird stuff out there at Area fifty one. Let me 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:58.000 tell you all about it. Yeah, his name, his real 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.960 name was Bob Lazar and he, uh, have you seen 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.800 interviews with this guy? Did you see the more recent one? No, 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:09.960 the but the one where he said I think it 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:13.520 was a good idea. That one. No, I'm talking about 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:17.680 there was one just from a few years ago. Um, 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:22.000 it's I gotta say, I mean, I'm not uh conspiracy 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:24.399 guy at all. But when you listen to Bob Blazar 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:28.920 talk today, he just doesn't seem like some crackpot or 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:31.879 a weirdo, or like he would be lying. He hasn't 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.640 like made money off of this or like he's He's 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.760 basically like, listen, man, I kind of wish this wasn't 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.679