Area 51 'declassified' in U-2 spy plane historyThe CIA has officially acknowledged the secret US test site known as Area 51, in a newly unclassified internal history of the U-2 spy plane programme.
The document obtained by a US university describes the 1955 acquisition of the Nevada site for testing of the secret spy plane.
It also explains the site's lingering association with UFOs and aliens.
The remote patch of desert surrounding Groom Lake was chosen because it was adjacent to a nuclear testing facility.
"The U-2 was absolutely top secret," Chris Pocock, a British defence journalist and author of histories of the programme, told the BBC.
"They had to hide everything about it."
The U-2 plane, developed to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, is still flown by the US Air Force.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23731759
