The Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame Oral History Program through collaboration with students and faculty at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada Reno has added thousands of pages to its fact sheets, biographies, and personal accounts of aviation and aerospace projects and events occurring in the state.
These include the personal bios of many of Nevada’s participants in once top-secret CIA projects occurring at Area 51 and other classified facilities in Nevada. This phase of the never-before documented oral history project has received top priority because of the high attrition rate among the aging veterans of this era. Valuable history is lost with the loss of each veteran.
From here, the NVAHOF staff and student volunteers will concentrate on documenting the little-known history of those pioneering civil and general aviation in Nevada.
The NVAHOF Oral History Project records and preserves the personal stories behind Nevada’s aviation history. NVAHOF founders and members participated in the award-winning Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, 2003-2008, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, directed by Dr. Mary Palevsky.” The NVAHOF has continued to work with other scholars to document Nevada’s unique place in our nation’s aerospace history.”
We encourage you to visit the excellent product of Dr. Palevsky’s interviews at https://digital.library.unlv.edu/ntsohp/.
The Zero-length Launch (ZELL) Program began with a launch of an F-84G in 1955. Each test utilized a USAF fighter mounted on the back of a flatbed truck and had a rocket motor attached to the airframe. The footage in the clip took place in Indian Springs, Nevada in 1958 when an F-100 was used.
Dedication of memorial for those lost at Area 51 during CIA U-2 Project Aquatone and A-12 Project Oxcart.
Jess Hartris, the Flying Sheriff
Genie Missile Test. This atomic blast in Nevada was a test of a 2-kiloton nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon designed to defend the United States from an attack from enemy bombers. A live Genie was detonated only once in Operation Plumbbob on July 19 1957. It was fired by AF Captain Eric William Hutchison (pilot) and AF Captain Alfred C. Barbee (radar operator) flying a F-89J over Yucca Flats.
Dr. Dan Bubb Interview on Early Aviation in Nevada. Dan Bubb, Ph.D. (Director of Education Programs for the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame) discusses the early aviation in Nevada during an opening ceremony of the third terminal at McCarran International Airport.
Gary Francis Powers, CIA U-2 pilot and veteran of Groom Lake in 1956, received the long deserved Silver Star award.
Early_U-2_Groom during CIA Project Aquatone at Watertown, a.k.a. Groom Lake – Declassified CIA film of Groom Lake operations during Project Aquatone in 1955 – 1957
BGen Dennis Sullivan Mach 3 – gear down story.
CIA Pilot, Col Ken collins about A-12 pilots.
CIA pilot Jack Layton discuses Blackshield Missions.
CIA A-12 Pilot Frank Murray on training and flying the A-12
CIA A-12 Pilot Murray discusses Lou Schalk
CIA A-12 Pilot Murray about loss of planes and pilots
CIA A-12 pilot about Kelly Johnson.
CIA pilot Ken Collins on Recruitment for CIA Project Oxcart.
CIA A-12 pilot Jack Layeon on his bailouts from burning C-47 and F-101
CIA A-12 pilot Jack Layton on his recruitment
CIA A-12 pilot on his bailout of burning YF-12
CIA A-12 pilot, BGen Dennis Sullivan of Blackshield Missions.
CIA pilot, BGen Dennis Sullivan about Lovelace Clinic
CIA A-12 pilot, BGen Dennis Sullivan about the Groom Lake Flying Club
CIA A-12 pilot, BGen Dennis Sullivan on his recruitment by the CIA Megan Kelly Interviews NVAHOF Director TD Barnes NVAHOF Director TD Barnes intoduces CIA OXCART Panel at the National Atomic Testing Museum NVAHOF Director TD Barnes on the history of Project Oxcart TD Barnes states his belief that the United States has UAVs providing the surveillance previously provided by the CIA A-12 and Air Force SR-71 Blackbirds T D Barnes discusses the topic of secrecy at Groom Lake during CIA Project Oxcart In the 1960s T.D. Barnes first participated in the CIA Project Palladium as the agency prepared a replacement plane for the U-2 flying over the Soviet Union. He later supported the A-12 project codenamed Project Oxcart while on at the Beatty station of the NASA High Range as a hypersonic flight support specialist.M/p> First Flight of the A-12 narrated by its pilot, Lockheed Test Pilot Lou Schalk
CIA & AIR FORCE U-2 PHOTO ARCHIVE
A-12, YF-12, & SR-71 BLACKBIRD PHOTO ARCHIVE
|
NASA HIGH RANGE PHOTO ARCHIVE Photos provided by Tony Landis at NASA
|
Only the declassified activities of the CIA and Air Force participation in U-2 Project Aquatone and Air Force Project Idealist are posted herein.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| AFOSI officer at Area 51 |
| YF-12 Stories by Vern Henderson |
| YF-12 Stories by Fred Trost |
| Company Cover Names by: Bill Goodwin |
| Checking out in A-12 by: Lon Walters |
| Starting the F-100 by Bill Fox |
| Been There – Done That by Slip Slater |
| Dobber Dick by Anonymous |
| Asia from Above by Col. Roy Stanley |
| The Crash of Article 928 by Bill Goodwin |
| Kelly Johnson by Dave Adrian |
| The Demise of Article #129 by James Beam |
| First Flight of the A-12 by Bill Fox |
| Genesis of the Roadrunner by O.B. Harnage |
| The Way It Was Back When by Sam Pizzo |
| Air Force Nostalgia by Anonymous |
| The Flight That Never Happened by Pizzo |
| As Good as it Gets By: Sam Pizzo |
| Arming the HAWK Missile By: TD Barnes |
| U-2 Pilot Selection by Harry Cordes |
| Super Duper Sonic by Harold Mills |
| Wife of A U-2 Piloy By: Rogene Cordes |
| Deployed Dependants by: Doris Barnes |
| Recruitment for Area 51 by: M/Gen Doug Nelson |
| Secret Hero by: Robert DeWitt |
| Recovery of Article #131 by: Frank Murray |
| Last Flight of the A-12 by: Frank Murray |
| Blackbird Remembrances by: Dr. Tom Budzynski P.h.D. |
| Walter Ray Accident by: BG Dennis Sullivan |
| Jack Weeks Accident by:BG Dennis Sullivan |
| U-2 Self contained Navigation Systems by:Bill Reed |
| M-209 Secret Code Machine by: Charles Christian |
| First U-2 Operational Flight by: Carl Overstreet |
Area 51 No Secret
itsnosecret-area51wasneverclassifiedNevada, the Battleborn State, became the nation’s West Coast Line of Defense for the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard during World War II. NASA followed with two tracking stations along its High Range flight test corridor across Nevada and its nuclear rocket engine development at NRDS, the Nuclear Rocket Development Station at Jackass Flats. The Atomic Energy Commission established the Nevada Proving Grounds for atomic bomb testing and the Central Intelligence Agency created Area 51 for flight testing its spy planes and other black projects.
Because so much remains unknown about Nevada’s unique aviation, and aerospace history, NVAHOF, through its student participant program is capturing from those who were there this fragile and elusive history through its oral history investigation, collection, and recordation program. The NVAHOF shares this knowledge and documentation as a public service to agencies, academia, historians, authors, media, and publications. Much of this oral history comes from external sources for which NVAHOF can not vouch for its accuracy.
NVAHOF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dependent on private and corporate tax-deductible donations to finance its educational and annual induction of deserving individuals and organizations into the NVAHOF for participation and contributions that advanced aerospace and aviation from within the state of Nevada.