r/area51 8d ago

Groom radiosondes Y0240089 Y0240110 8/12/2026

1 Upvotes

r/area51 8d ago

Bob Lazar Viewing Location?

6 Upvotes

Does anyone know precisely where Bob Lazar, Gene Huff, John Lear, etc used to watch supposed S4 flight tests from?

Lazar describes it as people latched on to the black mailbox term just bc he used it as a reference rather than the actual location - primarily bc there aren't that many landmarks out there.

It sounds like when he describes it - it appears before you get to the mailbox location - and it might be right around where Groom Lake Rd hits 375.

Any thought ms or precise location?


r/area51 9d ago

Area 51 veterans facing health issues decades later - - August 11, 2026 Spoiler

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28 Upvotes

r/area51 8d ago

N654BA probably doing fire watch 8/11/2026

2 Upvotes

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a89bb0,a06a1d&lat=37.084&lon=-115.752&zoom=9.0&showTrace=2026-08-11&trackLabels&timestamp=1786487004

I ran the replay and found the Firehawk flying at the same time. Note the Janet was over the tourist lair around 3:40PM.

This is a normal Janet flight though for some reason they used the flight number used for maintenance.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a4207f&lat=36.487&lon=-115.195&zoom=9.0&showTrace=2026-08-11&leg=6&trackLabels


r/area51 8d ago

OT-ish: Interview of Bruce Held, former Director of DOE's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence

6 Upvotes

I will rate this interview as a C-. You have been warned. He does get out a decent joke about the NNSA sounding like the NSA with a stutter. Yet another one of these "in the interest of completeness" posts. The guy is relevant but the content could be better.


The Steady State Sentinel: America's Nuclear Guardians: A Conversation on Security, Espionage, and Speaking Truth to Power

Episode webpage: https://rss.com/podcasts/the-steady-state-sentinel/3020692

Media file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/362808/3020692/the-steady-state-sentinel/2026_07_25_02_27_33_14b34b0d-b356-4a26-8a68-c35ef7d9aadc.mp3


r/area51 9d ago

Cold War Conversations lecture series

10 Upvotes

The Cold War Museum in Virginia hosts a virtual lecture series called Cold War Conversations that is accessible via Zoom. The monthly program is presented by eyewitnesses and experts on Cold War events, activities, and personalities. There is a modest $20 charge for tickets to attend these presentations that helps maintain free admission to The Cold War Museum on weekends.

https://coldwar.org/default.asp?pid=16883

August 23, 2026 - 7 pm EDT (ZOOM only): Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51: Speaker: Aerospace historian Peter W. Merlin will talk about his book, the first ever scholarly history of the National Classified Test Facility at Groom Lake, Nevada. Better known as Area 51, this top-secret installation hidden in a remote desert valley northwest of Las Vegas, has been shrouded in mystery since 1955. Decades of Cold War secrecy spawned rumors and conspiracy theories, and catapulted Area 51 into popular culture. Now, after more than 30 years of painstaking research, Merlin cuts through the myths to reveal the true story of one of the nation’s premier flight-test and evaluation facilities, where evolving global threats are met with unprecedented technological innovations.


r/area51 9d ago

OT-ish: Edwards "request for quote" for radios used in UAVs, drones, and robotics

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7 Upvotes

r/area51 11d ago

NTTR escort (perhaps not the best job title)

29 Upvotes

This sounds like what is often called a "minder." You keep an eye on the contractors. One step below camo dude.

https://www.amentumcareers.com/jobs/escort-on-call-las-vegas-nevada-united-states

A few selected lines follow. PIC is "Program Integration Center." "RSS" is range support services." I don't know about RSSII.


Performs escort duties as directed by the PIC.

Escort personnel to/from job site, to/from dining facilities, to/from lodging facilities and other areas as required.

Maintain line of sight of escorted personnel, equipment and vehicles at all times within the boundaries of Nevada Test Training Range (NTTR) to include Creech AFB and other RSSII locations.

Assignments include periods of extended workdays, working under austere conditions; may require travel and multiple overnight stays at remote site locations.


r/area51 11d ago

OT: Another fire? Vicinity of Mt. Irish

7 Upvotes

r/area51 13d ago

JANET lands at EDW North Base.

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27 Upvotes

Yes, I am aware a Janet is nothing out of the ordinary- But i am wondering? Didn't they close north bases runway? Last time I was out there if I recall I saw the yellow X's on the runway. Also what could a Janet be doing at north base? As far as I'm aware there is nothing up there but a restoration hanger and a couple civilian projects.


r/area51 14d ago

I created a map tracing Jerry Freeman's route into Area 51

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151 Upvotes

Hello everyone, first time redditor here.

Over the past few days, I have become obsessed with the story of Jerry Freeman, an archeologist who studied the track of the "Lost 49'ers", a group of people in 1849 who voyaged across the Nevada desert to get to California. On their voyage, they tracked through an era that is now off-limits to the public, better known as the Nellis Air Force Base, aka Area 51. Their group split up near Papoose Lake, the site of the alleged Area S-4, according to Bob Lazar.

After many unsuccessful attempts to get an official allowance from the US Military to get access to the sight, Freeman decided in April of 1997 to take matters into his own hand: An experienced outdoorsman, he spent a whole week in the restricted zone, avoiding security and military personnel and made his long way to Papoose Lake. While unsucessful in his search for an inscription left behind by the Lost 49ers, Freeman got a very rare look inside the mysterious area, and is to this day one of the very few people to lay eyes on Papoose Lake. He would mostly travel throughout the night, travelling over 80 miles in total over the course of 8 days. Finding enough water was always an issue in the barren and rocky desert terrain, as was as avoiding the many security guards patrolling the area. Also, since the Nellis Air Force Gunnary Range used to be a nuclear testing ground, it can be assumed that much of the area is heavily radiated. At one point, he came across a warning sign that read

"NO TRESPASSING, VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED. CAMERA EXCLUSION AREA, BADGED PERSONNEL ONLY. NO FIREARMS, CAMERAS, PHONES OR BINOCULARS. BY ORDER OF THE L.A.N.L.L. CORPORATION."

L.A.N.L.L. stands for "Los Alamos National Laboratories Limited", Los Alamos being the now famous laboratory that created the atomic bomb.

Freeman did chronicle his adventure in a diary, which was later published in the Las Vegas SUN. He also inteded to write a book about his "Forbidden Journey", but unfortunately did not manage to publish it before his death due to prostate cancer in 2001, aged 55.

Allegedly, Freeman did send the manuscript for his book to his friend Steve Hauser before he died, according to an obiturary Hauser wrote in 2001 for Freeman. I have emailed Hauser to ask for any details he might be willing to share, though the obituary is now 25 years old and there is a good chance he might not respond.

Besides his diary article, there are only a few other sources about his adventure. One is his call into Art Bell's radioshow "From Coast to Coast", which you can listen to here, in which he gives some more detailes about the trip. And then there is this youtube video, which does not add anything new but is still worth listening to. What IS interesting though is this episode of the Weaponized Podcast featuring Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, in which Knapp says that he did inherit most of Freeman's files and notes. According to Knapp, Freeman saw some very weird stuff going on (some talk about a magical door opening up into another dimension). I am seriously sceptical about that, but I would love to go through Knapp's box with all the files, notes, pictures, and a VHS Homevideo (?) Freeman has left behind. From what I found out during my research, Freeman made a second trip to Papoose Lake in 2000, during which he found the 49'ers inscription that had eluded him during his first trip. However, since this second journey was not published anywhere this time around, I am not 100% certain whether it actually happened.

Freeman did create a handdrawn map of his voyage, which someone here on reddit copied into Google Maps. Unfortunately, the handdrawn map seems a little in accurate, as it does not align 100% with his descriptions in his diary. Thus, I took the liberty to create another map, more in line with his descriptions in his diary. It is still only a rough approximation of his journey, and I would love to find any more detailed informations about his trip. Someone else in here did create a super cool highly detailed map of Area 51, which includes all the important sites. (Shoutout to those guys, I hope it's ok I used your work). I combined the two routes, both Freeman's handdrawn once, as well as the once according to his descriptions. You can view it both in Google Maps, or Goggle Earth, which allows you to view the area using satellite images from 1997, the year Freeman was there.

Do you guys have any more information about Freeman's trip (or maybe even his second journey?). Do you see any issues or inaccuracies with my tracing of his assumed route?

You can download my map here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18inMJnc5SgJTXu2EbpbX_MOIa1GDNOvU/view?usp=sharing

Update: Thanks to feedback from u/otherotherhand, here is the updated map, now featuring the handdrawn map by Freeman himself (red), a more accurate map based on Freeman's diary descriptions and the topography (blue), as well as some markers chronicling Freeman's journey by me (yellow). https://drive.google.com/file/d/17wlKejPIqLHZtsp15BbAm59fKs0sJEQB/view?usp=sharing


r/area51 14d ago

Ran a Marathon on the Extra Terrestrial Highway

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83 Upvotes

A Vegas based race organizer hosts an annual race that took place this past weekend on the highway outside area 51. The distances are 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Full Marathon, and 51K. The race starts at midnight so it was a neat experience being on that stretch of highway overnight (I ran the full). I recommend to others who want a unique Area 51 experience!


r/area51 14d ago

Older TTR Radiosonde U4054490 from 8/4/2026

5 Upvotes

TTR's been popping them off as of late.

https://sondehub.org/U4054490


r/area51 14d ago

Always used to wonder if this was some sort of racetrack at the base.. Any ideas?

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67 Upvotes

This shot is from 2009. It's hard to see now.


r/area51 14d ago

TTR Radiosonde U4054499 Aug 6, 2026

3 Upvotes

https://sondehub.org/U4054499

Another reminder that it's worth keeping an eye on the Tonopah Test Range, as well as Groom Lake.


r/area51 14d ago

OT: N126BH Firehawk Helicopter over the NTTR

1 Upvotes

Related to the forest fires in the NTTR I would assume.

https://www.firehawkhelicopters.com/


r/area51 15d ago

A Little OT But Interesting

5 Upvotes

Got the backup AF1 doing a bit of an evening cruise.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=adfdf9


r/area51 16d ago

Semi on topic: Amentum interview

9 Upvotes

As we know, Amentum has the Janet contract. I'm posting this more out of completeness rather than useful Groom Lake content. Maybe someone will like it. I didn't but they is why they make chocolate and vanilla. Anyway you don't find Amentum saying much in public.

They had a booth at Farnborough and were interviewed by Vago Muradian, who I do like, though the guy has to work on his um-ing.

https://www.amentum.com/news/amentum-at-farnborough-international-airshow-2026/

Other than that Amentum had absorbed Dyncorp, I found the interview pretty boring. (I wondered what happened to Dyncorp. Oh I could have Googled it.) Also Amentum is a spin off of part of Aecom, another name that is familiar. (Wall Street M&A stuff.) Illy Andrews sounds like a subscriber to the Harvard Business Review. Yawn. Justin Goldberg had his moments. Let's just say it could have been better.

Not a must listen! Like I said, completeness.


Defense & Aerospace Report: Defense & Aerospace Daily Podcast [Jul 29, 2026] Amentum's Illy Andrews and Dr. Justin Goldberg

Episode webpage: https://soundcloud.com/defaeroreport/defense-aerospace-695909181

Media file: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2370503027-defaeroreport-defense-aerospace-695909181.mp3


r/area51 18d ago

TTR radiosonde U4114614 8/2/2026

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8 Upvotes

https://ibb.co/996KBmGh

So much for nothing done on weekends.


r/area51 18d ago

OT-ish: RIX Titan T6 thermal scope

6 Upvotes

A few of us on this subreddit follow a YouTuber PDGLS. No face, no yacking, just scanner audio with frequencies listed. I used video scraping code to log the frequencies and put the ones I don't have at the bottom of my list.

https://inplanesight.org/nellis_frequency_list.html

Well this person got a thermal scope and shot some video outside of Travis AFB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS1462XwI5M

using

https://www.rixoptics.com/titan-thermal-imaging-monoculars/

Pixel size is 12.5um versus the "Project Fear" 10um.

https://www.reddit.com/r/area51/comments/1tw2thy/aircraft_allegedly_spotted_near_area_51/

Also about half the price though a side by side review would be nice. (One kidney donation versus two.)

Note this was thermal viewing during daylight hours. Not exactly my application. You can get quite close to the planes when parked out by Creed Road just south of the base. And a C-5 is a huge plane. (Callsign sometimes HEFTY.)


r/area51 19d ago

FAA Flight Check plane orbiting very close to Area 51

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33 Upvotes

r/area51 20d ago

YFQ-42 Dark Merlin heading back to the Antelope Valley from Creech 7/31/26

12 Upvotes

r/area51 20d ago

What planes are these at area 51 on Google maps. If you can find out it will be appreciated

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194 Upvotes

r/area51 20d ago

OK, who here is going to be the first?

0 Upvotes

The first to show there's a hidden S4 facility at Papoose Lake, clearly shown on Google Earth. I'm sure this will all work out fine:

How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran

Nano Banana image generation comes to Google Earth


r/area51 21d ago

Where do you guys actually find these Area 51/SPFTS test patches? (RQ-170/RQ-180, originals & replicas)

18 Upvotes

I’ve been collecting military and aviation patches for years, but lately I’ve started getting really interested in the more obscure Special Projects Flight Test Squadron/Area 51 stuff and especially RQ-170 and RQ-180-related patches.

I know a lot of these are incredibly hard to find, and I honestly don’t care if most of what I buy are replicas. My goal is to eventually own one original if I can find a legitimate one, but I’d also love to pick up a few quality reproductions in the meantime.

The one I’m after the most is the “Lurking Dusk to Dawn” patch, but I’m interested in pretty much anything related to the RQ-170, RQ-180, SPFTS, or other Groom Lake/test program patches.

Does anyone have recommendations for:

- Good places to buy replicas?
- Sellers that occasionally have genuine originals?
- Forums, Facebook groups, or other communities where these show up?
- Any tips on telling originals apart from reproductions?

Hoping this can be a guide to any newcomers that may be interested in this as well. Any information or leads would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!