Editing Area 51 (section)

===U-2 program===

{{Main|Lockheed U-2}}
[[File:Area51WatertownNE.jpg|thumb|"The Ranch" with U-2 flight line]]

The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) established the Groom Lake test facility in April 1955 for Project AQUATONE: the development of the [[Lockheed U-2]] strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Project director [[Richard M. Bissell Jr.]] understood that the flight test and pilot training programs could not be conducted at [[Edwards Air Force Base]] or Lockheed's Palmdale facility, given the extreme secrecy surrounding the project. He conducted a search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 under the same extreme security as the rest of the project.<ref name="Peebles">{{cite book |title=Dark Eagles, Revised Edition |publisher=Presidio Press |author=Peebles, Curtis |year=1999 |location=Novato, CA |isbn=0-89141-696-X}}</ref>{{rp|25}} He notified Lockheed, who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake. According to Lockheed's U-2 designer [[Kelly Johnson (engineer)|Kelly Johnson]]:<ref name="Peebles"/> {{rp|26}}
{{blockquote|1=We flew over it and within thirty seconds, you knew that was the place{{nbsp}}[...] it was right by a dry lake. Man alive, we looked at that lake, and we all looked at each other. It was another Edwards, so we wheeled around, landed on that lake, taxied up to one end of it. It was a perfect natural landing field{{nbsp}}[...] as smooth as a billiard table without anything being done to it.}}

The lake bed made an ideal strip for testing aircraft, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter protected the site from visitors; it was about {{cvt|100|mi|km}} north of Las Vegas.<ref name="shadow">{{cite book |title=Shadow Flights: America's Secret Air War Against the Soviet Union |publisher=Presidio Press |author=Peebles, Curtis |year=2000 |location=Novato, CA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shadowflightsame0000peeb/page/141 141–144] |isbn=978-0-89141-700-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/shadowflightsame0000peeb/page/141}}</ref> The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land, designated "Area 51" on the map, and to add it to the Nevada Test Site.<ref name="cia1992">{{cite book |url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/ |title=The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954–1974 |publisher=History Staff, Central Intelligence Agency |author1=Pedlow, Gregory W. |author2=Welzenbach, Donald E. |year=1992 |location=Washington DC |access-date=17 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130818070925/http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/ |archive-date=18 August 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|56–57}}

Johnson named the area "Paradise Ranch" to encourage workers to move to "the new facility in the middle of nowhere", as the CIA later described it, and the name became shortened to "the Ranch".<ref name="cia1992" />{{rp|57}} On 4{{nbsp}}May 1955, a survey team arrived at Groom Lake and laid out a {{convert|5000|ft|m|adj=on}} north–south runway on the southwest corner of the lakebed and designated a site for a base support facility. The Ranch initially consisted of little more than a few shelters, workshops, and trailer homes in which to house its small team.<ref name="shadow" /> A little over three months later, the base consisted of a single paved runway, three hangars, a control tower, and rudimentary accommodations for test personnel. The base's few amenities included a movie theater and volleyball court. There was also a mess hall, several wells, and fuel storage tanks. CIA, Air Force, and Lockheed personnel began arriving by July 1955. The Ranch received its first U-2 delivery on 24 July 1955 from Burbank on a [[C-124 Globemaster II]] cargo plane, accompanied by Lockheed technicians on a [[Douglas DC-3]].<ref name="shadow" /> Regular Military Air Transport Service flights were set up between Area 51 and Lockheed's offices in [[Burbank, California]]. To preserve secrecy, personnel flew to Nevada on Monday mornings and returned to California on Friday evenings.<ref name="cia1992" />{{rp|72}}