What are the most likely theories for what is inside Area 51. No crazy conspiracy theories, actual grounded theories that are probable or likely.
Classified Military Nonsense.
Most of it is boring
Some of it would put the fear of god into you
Weapons and such.
Most likely a testing facility for prototype aircraft, although probably not anymore because of how much attention it gets now
Some barely secret aircraft, a whole lot of accounting and clerical staff, and a tremendous amount of security to make it seem like there are major secrets being protected there. That is what I would put at the world’s most well known secret base, anyway.
This is the answer I got over drinks with a senior military leader. It’s too well known to hold anything interesting. He contrasted it with Mount Weather and the Cheyenne Complex. Those are still the sites for continuity of government because there is too much infrastructure to move. The sites just got additional hardening as the locations became known.
Plus a bunch of old equipment and documents that are definitely secret and too valuable to just destroy, but no-one is entirely clear exactly how secret and valuable so it’s safer to leave it guarded in place than to try and move it
That’s what I think is there now. A big pile of stuff that isn’t really useful anymore but they don’t want anyone else to see. Indiana Jones warehouse style.
I’m imagining a somewhat boring looking office/lab with a bunch of locked rooms.
“What’s in there?”
“Oh, it was Dr Simpsons lab in the 90s”
“Well what were they working on?”
“Don’t know, its classified”
“Well can we get rid of it?”
“I don’t know, it’s classified”
“Well who does know?”
“I don’t know, its classified”
It’s likely that at least one arm of Lockheed Martin’s “skunkworks” operates there. Area 51 was significantly more important during the cold war, when we were developing aircraft we wanted to keep secret from the Soviets. Nowadays, less so.
Military aircraft are tested there. We know for sure the U-2 spy plane was tested there, and the base was also involved with the development and testing of the plane that eventually became the SR-71 Blackbird. It’s likely the F117 (“stealth fighter”) and B2 (“stealth bomber”) were also tested there, and possibly partially developed there.
Unless you’re a military aviation nut, it’s actually not very exciting.
