Brief Summary
This episode of Bedtime History explores the history and mysteries surrounding Area 51, a highly secretive area within the Nevada National Security Site. It discusses its origins as a bombing practice site during World War II, its role in Cold War espionage and nuclear testing, and its later use for developing and testing advanced spy planes like the U-2 and A-12. The video also addresses the public's fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrial theories related to Area 51, as well as the continued secrecy surrounding the base's current activities.
- Area 51's origins and historical uses.
- The development and testing of advanced aircraft.
- The connection between Area 51 and UFO conspiracy theories.
- The ongoing secrecy and speculation about current activities.
Area 51 is a mysterious location within the Nevada National Security Site, shrouded in secrecy and speculation. Its secretive nature has fueled public imagination and intrigue. The area is owned by the government, and access is restricted to authorized personnel, leading to numerous theories about its purpose. While much of its history was unknown for a long time, recent years have brought more information to light, though mysteries still remain.
The landscape surrounding Area 51 is characterized by a dry, mountainous desert with sparse vegetation, roughly the size of Connecticut. Initially used for silver mining, the area's barren and unused nature made it ideal for military purposes. During World War II, it served as a practice aerial bombing site, with the construction of runways and buildings to prepare for bombing runs in Germany.
Following World War II, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union led to increased espionage and the threat of nuclear war. The Nevada Test Site, including Area 51, became a location for testing nuclear bombs away from populated areas. Both above-ground and underground tests were conducted, with the latter involving drilling deep holes and tunnels to contain the fallout.
To monitor the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities, the CIA initiated a top-secret program to develop high-altitude spy planes. The U-2 spy plane was designed to fly at extreme altitudes and capture photographs of potential nuclear weapon sites. Area 51 was chosen as the ideal location for testing the U-2 due to its remote location and suitable terrain.
Work began on airfields and runways around Groom Lake in Area 51 to support the U-2 testing program. Airplane hangars were built to conceal the spy planes, and fences and guards were added to restrict access. Personnel working at Area 51 were required to take an oath of secrecy. A small city was established to house engineers and pilots, complete with amenities like a gym, movie theater, and baseball diamond. The base was even nicknamed "Paradise Ranch" to attract workers.
Engineers worked on the U-2 aircraft during the day, and highly trained pilots tested them at night in the Nevada desert. The U-2, with its black color and long, slender wings, could fly up to 70,000 feet. Testing was dangerous, requiring skilled and brave pilots. Later, the A-12 Oxcart, a faster and higher-flying spy plane, was developed and tested at Area 51, reaching speeds of Mach 3 and altitudes of 85,000 feet. The A-12 was also the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird.
The high speeds and unusual flight patterns of the U-2, A-12, and other secret aircraft led to numerous UFO sightings by people living near Area 51 and by passenger jet pilots. These sightings, combined with the rise of science fiction, fueled speculation about spacecraft and extraterrestrial beings. The secrecy surrounding Area 51 further contributed to rumors and theories about UFOs and extraterrestrials being housed at the base.
New projects continued at Area 51, including the development of the D-21 Tagboard, one of the first unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), now known as drones. Later UAVs like the Predator, Sentinel, and Reaper were also tested there. Over time, some of the history of Area 51 became public, with the CIA sharing documents about the U-2, A-12, and F-117 in 2013. It was also revealed that astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trained at Area 51, simulating moonwalks in the desert.
Today, the activities at Area 51 remain top secret, leading to continued speculation. The base is heavily guarded, and access is restricted. It is believed that advanced aircraft and weapon systems are still being tested there. The video also touches on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and organizations like the SETI Institute, which use radio telescopes to search for habitable planets and signs of intelligent life.
The government and military have conducted studies on UFOs, such as Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings and interviewed witnesses. Most sightings were attributed to aircraft or other explainable phenomena. The video also discusses the famous Roswell incident in 1947, where a crashed object led to speculation about UFOs. The military later claimed it was a high-flying balloon used for spying, but rumors persist.
The video concludes by noting that much about Area 51 remains unknown, encouraging viewers to speculate and wonder about its current activities. The best guess is that advanced, stealthy aircraft and weapon systems are being tested. For those interested in UFOs, a visit to the Extraterrestrial Highway near Area 51 offers shops, hotels, and businesses themed around UFOs and extraterrestrials.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “Area 51 for Kids | Bedtime History”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:02 foreign we're going to learn about a place which has been a mystery to people all over the world places like this one become mysterious because not much is known about what goes on there so people start to imagine what might have happened there and share their ideas until the place becomes more and more intriguing to those who don't know about it this particular place is called area 51. Area 51 is one section in a large territory of land located in the deserts of Nevada and the United States which is now officially called the Nevada National Security Site Area 51 is owned by the government and only the people who work there are
0:48 allowed to know what happens on the base for a very long time no one outside of the base knew what was going on there but in recent years more of its history has become known so in this episode we're going to talk about some of the history we do know about and also the things we don't and for that reason have become mysterious the land where Area 51 is located is a desert dry and mountainous the ground and hills are brown and there are very few trees and it's around the size of the state of Connecticut the lakes in the area are dried up and for a while it was used for mining Silver when people working for the military saw this area they thought because it was Barren and unused it would be a good place to practice aerial bombing so this
1:36 is what the area was used for during World War II to fly aircraft over the dry desert and practice hitting targets with bombs they built two runways and other buildings and used the area to prepare for bombing runs that they would have to make in Germany which was the enemy of the United States at the time after World War II ended the Cold War began the Cold War was a conflict between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union which is now Russia it was called a cold war because there was very little fighting and instead lots of Espionage which is another word for spying both countries were worried that the other country would use nuclear bombs which were invented during World War II on each other the United States needed an area for
2:23 testing nuclear bombs that was far from humans so they used the land in Nevada and called it the Nevada testing site some of these moms were tested above ground but many of them were tested below ground they drilled holes deep into the Earth and dug tunnels to place the bombs into before detonating them they did this because the Fallout from nuclear bombs above the ground can be very harmful when it moves through the air I did a little research using Google Maps and today you can still see the creators created by testing of these bombs at the Nevada Test Site so to keep an eye on each other's nuclear bombs the United States and Russia train spies to live in each other's countries trying to figure out what their enemy would do next the agency in the United States for
3:08 Gathering intelligence is called the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA intelligence is information about other countries such as Russia at the time besides just sending out agents the CIA had the idea to use Jets to photograph possible nuclear weapons in Russia these jets would need to fly very high to avoid enemy radar and have very powerful cameras to take photos of the land below and the program to develop the spy plane would have to be top secret this means no one could know about it besides the people who are working on the spy plane the new spy plane was called the U2 and once the work started on it the designers needed a place to test it out the chief designer of the U2 named Kelly Johnson was flying over Nevada one day
3:55 when he saw the flat desert and mountains of Area 51 and thought it would be perfect for testing out the new spy plane soon work started on the airfields and runways around Groom Lake at the section of the Nevada Test Site named Area 51 they also built airplane hangars to keep the spy plane out of view fences were added all around Area 51 so no one but those working on the U2 spy plane could see what was being done guards were posted at all of the entrances to make sure no one entered the base and anyone who worked at Area 51 had to swear an oath of secrecy to promise that they'd never speak about the work they were doing soon the area around Groom Lake was a small City where engineers and Pilots could live and work and test the spy
4:41 plane a gym movie theater and baseball diamond were even built to make life more enjoyable at Area 51 Kelly Johnson even called it Paradise Ranch to attract people to work on the top secret projects there during the day Engineers worked on the aircraft then at night highly trained pilots flew the advanced aircraft high around the Nevada deserts to test them and make sure they were working well the U2 spy plane was black had long slender wings and could fly up to 70 000 feet which was extremely high for a jet at that time testing the YouTube was very dangerous and the pilots who flew it had to be very skilled and brave to take it up again and again until it was ready to use
5:26 many talented Engineers also had to work long hours to make sure the U2 could fly high take photos and not be detected by enemy radar before the U2 was put into service the next top secret project began on a new spy plane which would be designed to fly even higher and faster than the U2 it was called the a12 ox cart it was long black sleek and eventually was able to fly Mach 3 which is around 2 000 miles per hour and faster than the speed of sound it still holds the record of flying at 85 000 feet which is incredibly high for a jet the a12 was also the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird which looked very
6:12 similar so as you can imagine when Jets like the U2 the a12 and other top secret aircraft flew at night they moved at incredible speeds and when their fuel burned it created bright streaks across the sky this made people living nearby Area 51 very suspicious about what was going on there they saw objects that were moving higher and faster than anything they'd ever seen also when passenger jet Pilots flew nearby they saw objects moving high above them and very fast stories started to emerge from people on the ground and in the air who saw these
6:58 objects science fiction was becoming popular in comic books movies and TV could the objects people were seeing be spacecraft From Another World they started calling these unidentified flying objects or UFOs another word they used to describe beings from other planets were extraterrestrials they wondered if Area 51 had UFOs and extraterrestrials of course it didn't help that area 51 was so top secret everything was classified which means not public knowledge and everyone working there was flown in by plane and had to receive top secret clearance you can imagine what kind of rumors started
7:44 all the while new projects continued at Area 51 and the surrounding test site in the deserts of Nevada which included the D21 tag board one of the first aircraft flown without a human pilot you might know these as drones but officially called uavs unmanned aerial vehicles later uavs like the Predator Sentinel and Reaper drones were tested at area 51. these are now in use by the military today in places like the Middle East a pilot on a base in Nevada flies these drones remotely in places all over the world using Satellite Communication there's also been a debate about whether aircraft like this should be used in other countries and when it should be used
8:30 over time the history of the aircraft tested at Area 51 and nearby became public knowledge in 2013 the CIA even shared documents about the work done there the documents about the U2 the a12 and F-117 became Declassified later it became known that astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who completed the first Apollo Mission trained there they put on their spacesuits and walked around the desert as if they were on the moon of course today whatever is being tested and created at Area 51 is once again top secret so we can only guess what's happening there because it's unknown it becomes mysterious to those who don't know and people like to use their imaginations to think about what might
9:15 be going on there now [Music] like we said before the base is guarded by troops on patrol So currently only people with top secret permission can get in it's likely that the most advanced aircraft is being tested there and things we won't know about until they are revealed at a future date that said you can look at Area 51 on Google Maps and my kids and I had fun looking at the different airfields mountains roads and testing sites and we do admit it's fun to guess at what might be going on there today so back to UFOs and extraterrestrials since it can be such an intriguing topic many people wonder with our universe
10:01 being so big whether there's life out there in the galaxy and if so why haven't we made contact with this other intelligent life yet there are lots of questions here which are fun to explore The seti Institute is one organization with a goal to find extraterrestrial life in the universe seti stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence they use powerful radio telescopes to observe Faraway places in the Galaxy that might contain intelligent life they search for planets that might be habitable which means be the right temperature and have water at times the government and Military has also done studies on UFOs and intelligent life that may have visited Earth Project Blue Book is the name of one of those studies they interviewed
10:46 Witnesses and researched What might explain what people were seeing in most cases what people saw corresponded to aircraft flying in the area or other explainable things one of the most famous UFO stories in the United States happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947 when something crashed in the desert there with all the talk of UFOs familiar with science fiction the newspaper was quick to report it was a UFO did they do this just to get people to buy their newspapers or did someone see something that made them think it was a spacecraft from another planet the military quickly came to the scene to clean up the crashed aircraft and this led to people speculating that whatever did crash in Roswell was top secret stories about what happened there then
11:32 began to spread and ever since it has been the topic of much debate later the military said it was in fact a top secret project a high-flying balloon used to spy on enemies Far Below during World War II they hope to use it to listen for bombs exploding to know where the enemy might be testing nuclear bombs but as you can imagine the rumors still abound about what happened at Roswell New Mexico later people wondered if what was being tested at Area 51 was connected to the crash at Roswell did the government know something about UFOs that the general public didn't were they testing their own UFOs we do know they were testing top-secret aircraft like the U2 and a12 it can be fun to speculate and wonder but the fact remains there is still much
12:18 that we don't know about Area 51 and the surrounding Nevada Test Site so it's being tested at Area 51 today the best guess is the same work of advanced aircraft that can fly fast and is stealthy which means avoid being detected by enemy radar there may also be Advanced weapon systems being tested which the military is always developing foreign [Music] visit Area 51 today you'll see lots of no trespassing signs and surveillance cameras but people interested in UFOs like to drive down the road now called the Extraterrestrial Highway and see all the shops hotels and other businesses which are UFO and extraterrestrial
13:05 themed which sell t-shirts books and other souvenirs if you're ever in the area you'll have to visit someday and perhaps spot something interesting in the sky [Music] I hope you enjoyed this episode about Area 51 be sure to tune in next Monday for a new episode [Music]
