21 May 2007
Dreamland
The big air show was held at Andrews Air Force Base over the weekend. Military jets from all over where in town for demonstration flights, and the aircraft the taxpayers purchase were on static display. The Air Force Demonstration Team was here, too, The Thunderbirds.
There were public safety messages on the radio to notify the public not to be alarmed if they saw fighters flying low over their homes. Everyone is a little jumpy since the attacks, when NORAD established Combat Air Patrols over the city, and the contrails from the jet fighters formed odd circles in the sky.
People tend to notice those sorts of things, which is why some secrets are hard to keep. If you wish to preserve them, it is best to conduct some flying far from prying eyes. Nevada is a good place for that, since the Feds own almost the whole state, and have remarkable latitude in what they do there.
Strange things are said to happen in the desert. There are those that are convinced that the Government has some captured flying saucers out at a patch of blasted sand ninety miles from Las Vegas that belongs to the Air Force. At least that is the story. It is known by the original place name, which is Groom Lake, and also by anonymous and somewhat ominous name “Area 51.” Some call it Dreamland, which is sometimes the radio call sign.
I have not been there, and have no personal knowledge of anything in the area except the Nevada Test Site, next door which shares a border of the property. It helps makes the security better.
There have been stories about Dreamland since World War Two. The Federal government owns most of the state, since it is basically uninhabitable, and with the arrival of the nuclear age, seemed like a fine place to demonstrate new technology. Testing of nuclear weapons has been banned, of course, and like the rest of the remnants of the Manhattan Project, continues serenely along with a slight mission change.
They are talking about perpetual storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Flats installation, and a 10,000 year remediation mission. That is a federal project for you.
The remoteness of the locale, the flatness of the ground and the relative proximity to Las Vegas makes the area useful for other sorts of tests. The reason people are so prepared to believe in flying saucers is that strange aircraft have been flying in the desert for years. The U-2 was tested there, and so was the SR-71, both of which were not officially acknowledged for years after they became operational. The bat-wing B2 and the F-117 stealth aircraft might have cast their shadows over the sagebrush, too. There are stories.
There is the famous one about the military pilot who encountered an in-flight emergency near the area, and reported it to the regional FAA controller. He requested immediate clearance for landing, and the controller gave him vectors to McCarron Field, the airport that serves the gamblers in Vegas.
That was a hundred miles away, and the pilot was not sure he could make it. He reported that he had an airfield in sight, and was going to use it. He was warned that it was restricted airspace and not available, but he felt he had no choice and put his plane down on the long smooth runway.
That was the last time he saw the outside world for about six months, and what he saw while he was there is not available for publication. Some say it was the SR-71 Blackbird, and maybe it was.
Other things have flown out of Dreamland. Aircraft that were in development, and aircraft that really should not have been there. A place of mysteries.
It has been that way for years, since the cloak of secrecy became one of the core business areas of the government.
The Germans are widely credited with creating the first operational jet aircraft, and Hitler is widely credited with misusing them. It is lucky that the Fuhrer labored under the illusion of infallibility. The technical experts say that if the sleek ME-262 had been used as an offense bomber, it might have tipped the air war in another direction. That is a matter for discussion somewhere else, though.
The Brits and the Americans were working on jets of their own. The British showed off their prowess to the Cousins in the famous Tizard Techincal Mission of 1940, when Churchill opened the technical kimono on the crown jewels of Empire science. It was a desperate attempt to ensure that the Americans would support Britain, who stood alone.
Major General “Hap” Arnold, later Air Force Chief of Staff, saw the British Gloster E.28/39 jet fly in April of 1941, seven months before Pearl Harbor. He was given the plans to the Frank Whittle-designed turbo-jet engine, which he brought home and turned over to General Electric to build. He enlisted Lawrence Bell's aircraft company to design an airplane around it, and the American jet program began.
Bell had produced the P-39 Airacobra fighter, and was known as an innovative and agile manufacturer.
The matter was tippy-top secret, as you might imagine, and a complete disinformation campaign was developed to protect it. In order to provide a cover, the Bell jet fighter project was assigned the designation XP-59A, which has already been assigned to a completely unrelated piston-engined fighter with counter-rotating propellers. The GE jet engine was assigned the cover designation “I-A,” which was in the nomenclature series used for engine superchargers. The jet aircraft was the prototype for all the “black” projects that would follow.
Design of the new aircraft was finalized in January of 1942, just a little over a month after America formally entered the war. The first prototypes were delivered to what is now Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert nine months later.
While being handled on the ground, the aircraft was fitted with a dummy propeller to conceal the true nature of the propulsion system. There were significant problems with the engine, but enormous resources were poured into the project, which had been designated the P-59A Airacomet.
The aircraft was a dog. Existing propeller aircraft could easily outperform it, and the Navy realized that it was unsuitable for carrier operations. None-the-less, the jet was the future, and it was wrapped in secrecy. Remedies were eventually found for the long list of design flaws, and the program provided critical data to pilots and ground crews on the challenges of operating jet aircraft.
The elite nature of the program encouraged certain idiosyncratic behavior. Bell Aircraft Company personnel wore black derby hats to distinguish themselves on the flight line.
In the course of the flight test regimen, it was essential that the secret aircraft had to actually fly. When it did so, it naturally became public. Although the airspace around Edwards was officially restricted, that caused a natural attraction to other pilots. P-38 Lightning pilots from a nearby Army field were drawn light moths to the area to see what activity was being conducted at the classified base. Accordingly, a contingency plan was developed and put into place.
On one low-speed flight, Bell test-pilot Jack Woolams spotted one of the inquisitive Lightnings in the restricted area, closing for an intercept. Jack pulled on a rubber gorilla mask, put on his derby, and stuck a big cigar in his mouth, and let the P-38 pull alongside his jet.
The Lightning pilot looked across at the propeller-less aircraft being piloted by an ape in a snappy hat, apparently puffing on a fine cigar. He broke off abruptly, and returned to base.
The AiraComet program was confident that whatever story emerged from the encounter would provide sufficient security, but it was also apparent that if security was to be maintained, another base deeper in the desert was going to be required.
As I said, I have no idea what is flying out of Dreamland these days. But if you happened to blunder into the restricted area and see a saucer with a great ape at the controls, it would not be that unusual.
Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com