Somewhat more colourfully, Area 51 also the epicentre of many leading alien conspiracy theories.<\/p>
There\u2019s a reason for that.<\/p>
Groom Lake lies within the perimeter of the United States Air Force (USAF)\u2019s Nevada Test and Training Area, and the area around it has long been the USAF\u2019s preferred site for the testing of experimental aircraft.<\/p> Some of the planes what have been developed and tested \u2013 at least in part \u2013 at Area 51 include the Lockheed U-2, A-12 and SR-71 high-altitude reconnaissance planes, and\u00a0 the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.<\/p> Area 51 has been used for this purpose since the 1950s \u2013 but the US government denied the area\u2019s very existence right up until 2013, when first the CIA and then President Obama finally came clean.<\/p> In the meantime, numerous sightings by locals and tourists of strange, otherwordly-looking aircraft \u2013 literally unidentifed flying objects \u2013 in the skies over the area had begun to fuel rumours of secret US government collusion with invading alien forces, and so on.<\/p> Rumours that were only amplified by the success of TV shows like \u2018The X Files\u2019 and \u2018UFO Hunters\u2019.<\/p> Perhaps the best known conspiracy theory regarding Area 51 suggests that it\u2019s where the US government is keeping an alien spacecraft and the bodies of its crew, which were allegedly recovered from a crash site at Roswell in New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p> These rumours flourished after a man called Bob Lazar claimed, in 1989, to have worked at the site, reverse-engineering technologies recovered from the crash.<\/p> Lazar\u2019s testimony has, however, since been discredited as far as many people are concerned, both by claims that he apparently holds neither of the two degrees he claimed to have attained from MIT and Caltech, as well as by his arrest for aiding and abetting prostitution (later reduced to ‘felony pandering’)<\/a>.<\/p> Today, Area 51 may be publicly acknowledged at last, but it remains a closely guarded, top secret military installation.<\/p> And while UFO-obsessed visitors continue to flock to the region, the closest they\u2019re ever likely to get to Area 51 itself is a visit to the many UFO-themed gift shops in the nearby town of Rachel.<\/p> On 20 September 2019, Facebook user Matty Roberts posted a hoax rallying cry to UFO conspiracy theorists to ‘storm Area 51’, implying that, should enough people gather and attempt to illegally gain access to the facility, they would be able to find out the ‘truth’ about the facility its alleged secrets.<\/p>![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-612580686.jpg\")
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Conspiracy theories<\/strong><\/h2>
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‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us<\/strong>‘<\/h2>
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