[spooky music]
NARRATOR: Area 51 was
built around a dry lake
bed known as Groom Lake.
It offered obvious advantages.
RAY GOUDEY: Well, we
needed a good place
to land that we could
land any direction,
depending on where
the wind came from.
And the round lake
served that purpose.
It was also protected in the
mountain range around it.
So it wasn't very visible.
MAN: Smooth as glass,
just unbelievable.
I could take that staff car out
there, and as fast as it'd go.
And it wouldn't
even make a bump.
RAY GOUDEY: We had a bunch of
trailers for us to live in.
And we had a all-purpose
building where you eat.
Didn't have TV, didn't
even have a radio.
ED LOVICK: Paradise Ranch
was the first name that
was given to the establishment.
They thought it would soften the
blow of the austerity that was
attempt to, perhaps,
convince people it wasn't
quite as bad as it looked.
NARRATOR: Area 51 was created
for one top secret project
called Aquatone.
In 1955, men from the
CIA, the Air Force,
and a secret division of
Lockheed came to Paradise Ranch
to begin work.
TONY BEVACQUA: All they
would tell us was we
had to go for a pressure suit.
So we knew it was going
to be high altitude stuff.
Your blood boils above 50,000
without having pressurization.
So if you were to
lose pressurization,
just your engine
conk out, and you're
above 50, that suit saves you.
MAN: When pilots fly higher
than man has ever flown,
equipment changes are necessary.
NARRATOR: In this
declassified footage,
Ray Goudey prepares for
a flight inside Area 51.
The men look like
nothing seen on earth,
and rumors about what was
going on inside Area 51
started to swirl.
TONY BEVACQUA:
[inaudible] I didn't know
what it was until I got there.
And wondered what
I got myself into.
NARRATOR: The men
were testing one
of the most important tools of
the Cold War, the U2 spy plane.
TONY BEVACQUA: There
was no trainer.
There was no two seater.
There was no simulator.
NARRATOR: The U2 was equipped
with high resolution cameras
designed to fly at 70,000
feet and take photographs
from the edge of
the stratosphere.
As the Cold War arms race with
the Soviet Union intensified,
the U2 was America's best hope
for tracking their rival's
growing nuclear arsenal
and it put enormous demands
on pilots who had to
breathe pure oxygen
to survive at such heights.
MAN: Pilots find the confines
of the helmet and face plate
conducive to claustrophobia.
A number of pilots have been
dropped from the program
because of this single factor.
NARRATOR: The government's
cover story for the U2
was that it was being
used for weather research.
MAN: If not conventional
aircraft, then,
what did they see?
NARRATOR: The U2 cruised
at three times the height
of regular airliners
and would sometimes
be glimpsed by civilians.
MAN: I can't be
sure, but I believe
I saw the sun glinting off
of windows or observation
portholes of a sort.
NARRATOR: In the mid
1950s, while both
the Cold War and
America's interest in UFOs
were at their peak.
MAN: I think it was from
outer space, but friendly.
NARRATOR: The silver
colored planes
sometimes created confusion.
TONY BEVACQUA: It was pure
aluminum, and we said hey,
we look like a
bright star up there.
NARRATOR: Pilots were
told to deny everything,
even to aircraft controllers.
TONY BEVACQUA: There
were stories about seeing
something flying way above.
They may have called it in.
But they'll still get nothing,
other than evasive stuff.
RAY GOUDEY: If you get up
along the Canadian border,
the ground controller
questioned my altitude.
Actually he was pretty accurate.
And I said, no, you got to
recalibrate your weapon.
[laughs] That's not the
altitude we were at.
NARRATOR: By 1957,
unacknowledged U2
flights were the source of half
of all reported UFO sightings.
But they were nothing
compared to what would come.
