---- - **Name:** Area 51 (AKA: Homey Airport KXTA, Groom Lake) - **Head Quarters:** Nevada (Edwards Air Force Base) - **President/CEO:** - Owner: Department of Defense - Operator: United States Air Force - Controller: Air Force Material Command - **Incorporated/Established Date:** - **Type:** #government ## Mission Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport (ICAO: KXTA, FAA LID: XTA) or Groom Lake (after the salt flat next to its airfield). Details of its operations are not made public, but the USAF says that it is an open training range, and it is commonly thought to support the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. The USAF and CIA acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. ## Projects/Programs - **U-2 Program** - the development of the [Lockheed U-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2 "Lockheed U-2") strategic reconnaissance aircraft. - **OXCART Program** - established in August 1959 for "antiradar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs" and all later work on the [Lockheed A-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 "Lockheed A-12"). - **D-21 Tagboard** - Following the loss of [Gary Powers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Powers "Gary Powers")' [U-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2 "Lockheed U-2") over the Soviet Union, there were several discussions about using the A-12 OXCART as an unpiloted drone aircraft. The Air Force agreed to fund the study of a high-speed, high-altitude drone aircraft in October 1962. The Air Force interest seems to have moved the CIA to take action, the project designated "Q-12". To separate it from the other A-12-based projects, it was renamed the "D-21". (The "12" was reversed to "21"). "Tagboard" was the project's code name. - **Foreign Technology Evaluation** - During the [Cold War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War "Cold War"), one of the missions carried out by the United States was the test and evaluation of captured [Soviet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union "Soviet Union") fighter aircraft. Beginning in the late 1960s, and for several decades, Area 51 played host to an assortment of Soviet-built aircraft. - **Have Blue/F-117 program** - The [Lockheed Have Blue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Have_Blue "Lockheed Have Blue") prototype stealth fighter (a smaller proof-of-concept model of the [F-117 Nighthawk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117_Nighthawk "F-117 Nighthawk"))