Area 51/Dreamland/Groom Lake AFB Scenery

By Akbar Sherwani (9 April 2002)

It's situated 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas so I decided to fly from there in my 737 to witness what Jamie Al-Nasir's version ofthis base would be like on approach. I left the busy center and continued into the desert. Now I could see the fuss everyone had made about what secrets where there as it was miles from anywhere, let alone any city.

Looking out of the left window through the clouds the airport appeared and you can really see how long the runways are. The shear scale of the base is phenomenal and you can also note where the runway extends over the dried lake making it 25300 feet long. At this point I headed west from the airport over a hill where many of the famous early shots were taken of the base and the strange lights.

I flew over the airport this time going above the dried lake and the runway and towards the main base and tried to identify the buildings from a great diagram provided with the files. It is almost like a satellite picture and gives clear and detailed analysis of the base features.

After climbing away I got myself on to 33L and landed the aircraft. There's a comment in the documentation about landing on the extended part that continues on the lake, which recommends you fly one notch below the glideslope on the fictional ILS, which I tried after a go-around.

The scenery looked nice once I landed. The buildings were great to see up close. Though maybe some dynamic scenery would have livened things up though the base, the author says he has emphasized on layout, positioning and correct sizing of aprons, taxiway networks and buildings and so on more than anything else. Maybe we'll see some dynamic scenery in a later version.

The scenery includes Lockheed's large hangars as well as Hangar 18, capable of housing aircraft with a wingspan of up to 235 feet. Area 51 is also known to house TEMPEST certified intelligence and cryptological vaults (buildings capable of supressing electro magnetic radiation).

The base has also been thought of as a government storage facility for UFOs! While this may be unlikely the shear scale and technology in use at the base is truly amazing.

It says in the documentation that this highly accurate version is based on recent 1 meter (3.2 foot) satellite imagery and data (acquired from the Russian Aviation and Space Agency) and features a complex layout including a 32 acre munitions storage facility, bunkers, tanks and burn pits. I don't know where Jamie got such detailed info on this base; perhaps he sneaked in and took a couple of pictures whilst they were sleeping!

Both the FS2002 and FS2000 versions of the scenery are available for download. There's also an Experimental Section which features Area 51 at www.PakFlightSim.com.

Akbar Sherwani
sherwania@hotmail.com

Download the FS2000 version of the scenery.

Download the FS2002 version of the scenery.