LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Groom: Groom Lake
built 614 days ago
Groom Lake started out as an Army Air Corps Gunnery Range during World War II. In the mid-1950's Lockheed was searching for a remote base to test its new U-2 spy plane. Although the runway on the remote dry lake bed was unusable, the location was deemed to be ideal due to its remoteness and by the summer of 1955 construction of a 5,000 foot runway began, with two hangars and some temporary living quarters. Later surplus Navy military quarters were dismantled, shipped to Groom, and reassembled. The first U-2 arrived on a C-124 later in 1955. The U-2 was reassembled, checked out, and on August 4, 1955 Tony Levier made the first flight test.
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Recognizing the success of testing the U-2 at Area 51, the CIA and the Air Force decided to test all new top-secret military aircraft at Groom Lake. Under the leadership of Werner Weiss, grade GS-15 in the CIA, Colonels Holbury and Slip Slater, USAF increased the size of the facility to accommodate the new Oxcart/A-12 program by lengthening the runway from 5000 feet to 8500 feet and the restricted airspace grew to 20 X 22 nautical miles. Surplus World War II Navy barracks were moved to the site to furnish billeting for CIA operations. In early 1962 the first A-12 (CIA code-name for the A-12 plane: Article) was shipped to Groom Lake. The five specially trained CIA pilots (CIA code-name: Drivers) arrived soon thereafter. On April 26, 1962, the first A-12 Archangel, the most revolutionary plane ever, took to the skies.
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Several indicators suggest that Groom Lake's flight test activity did not end with the F-117 Stealth Fighter. First, construction of a new runway, which must have started sometime after the F-117 program had been made public. Second, the numerous reports by aviation enthusiasts and others of unusual aircraft noise and lights at night in the years since the F-117 became public. Third, the 1995 action by the Department of Interior to withdraw 3,972 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, from public access, creating a security buffer zone to prevent public viewing of military activities at Groom Lake.
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