Planes

The U-2 was tested when Area 51 was still a bunch of tents and Quonset huts. Flying at 70,000 feet, the U-2 overflew the USSR with impunity for years until one was shot down in 1960. Until they were painted black in the sixties, a fair percentage of UFO sightings were actually reflections from the silver bodied U-2 reconnaissance plane.

The true successor to the U-2, the mach 3 SR-71 flies at 90,000 feet, uses 8,000 gallons of fuel per hour and has outrun countless SAMs. Built of titanium, the SR-71's surface temperature reaches 3,000 degrees during flight. Deactivated in 1990, the program has recently been revived, some believe because of problems with the Aurora.

This ungainly craft known as Shamu was at the forefront of technology for over a decade. It's mission - World War III. It was designed to direct thousands of munitions onto waves of invading armor. It is currently on display in an Ohio museum.

Code named Senior Trend and known as the Hopeless Diamond, the F-117 Stealth Fighter was designed in the late seventies. So stealthy, it has a radar cross-section the size of a marble. So stealthy, aircrews sometimes find dead bats whose own sonar is so confused by the signal return from the F-117 that they crash into parked craft. The hero of the Gulf war, the Stealth Fighter is still tasked to take out the toughest targets and is only now becoming vulnerable to enemy radar.

The TR3A Black Manta or Baby B-2 is widely thought to be the successor to the Stealth Fighter. Sightings around Area 51 are starting to be made of a smooth, rounded flying wing that is much smaller than a Stealth Bomber. Faster and more stealthy than the F-117, some believe it has already seen combat. It supposedly works in tandem with the Stealth Fighter, relaying target information.

While not fully an Area 51 only project, pop-ups like the X-33 and others are thought to have technology that was pioneered at Area 51. They often sport "new" technology that is already developed but yet has never been tested on known aircraft. In fact, some believe that the X-33 space plane is really the "white" version of the Aurora.