Private pilot Gabriel Zeifman, who regularly takes aerial photos of Area 51, the US Air Force’s notoriously secretive flight test facility in Nevada, has shared a new set of images of the base.

Zeifman’s images are similar to previous ones, but they show a particularly good view of an elongated hangar-like structure known as an open-and-hidden shelter, which appears to contain some sort of oddly shaped object.

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The 120-foot-wide, 320-foot-long hangar sits alongside a taxiway that connects the base’s main ramp area to the long, closed runways. The taxiway extends to the new, operational runway to the east. Around 2005, the north and south taxiways were extended, tripling the length of the hangar. The following year, wall-like structures were added to either side of the expanded facility. These walls would block the hangar from view not only from the main runways, but also from curious onlookers a few dozen miles away on Mount Tikaboo.

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A 2006 photo shows the center being more heavily fortified, with many areas now covered with roofs and retaining walls. Photo: Driver
By 2007, an extended turntable was added to the south end of the hangar, allowing an aircraft to enter the shelter, then taxi out, turn around, and return to the taxiway.

The structure is not really a hangar in the traditional sense. It is a spy shelter, hiding flight tests from prying eyes, especially from satellites overhead. It serves as a location closer to the runway where personnel can perform final checks and troubleshooting, as well as rig any explosives, while the aircraft remains hidden.

For tactical aircraft, these types of checks are traditionally performed at the hammerhead areas at the end of runways at air bases, which are completely exposed. Likewise, when a test aircraft lands, the shelter provides a place to quickly remove it from view.

The facility can also be used to quickly return the aircraft for another sortie.

By 2007, a row of four antenna masts, often associated with drone operations, had also been constructed along the east side of the shelter, suggesting it may have been used. There are other similar objects seen around Area 51.

Looking at the latest images inside the open and hidden shelter, it is not yet certain what this is. To the naked eye, it looks like a dagger-shaped object placed very low. It has a protrusion towards the back, similar to an aircraft cockpit. So this object could be a high-speed or stealth test aircraft, sitting very close to the ground.

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The 2010 image shows four additional antenna masts in the area. Photo: Driver
With this speculation, it is possible that this object is a damaged aircraft that has malfunctioned and lost its landing gear. This could be the reason for storing it in the shelter until it can be safely moved elsewhere, scrapped or returned to flying. However, this is just a hypothesis and it could very well be something else entirely, such as part of a radar dish. The images are not of high enough resolution to be conclusive.

Based on the limited photographic evidence available, the aircraft that resembles the object is the Martin Marietta X-24B, a hypersonic lift aircraft. The program grew out of a major effort by the US Air Force and NASA focused on exploring the concept of a hypersonic lift body. The X-24B began flying in the mid-1970s, and a follow-on initiative to build a hypersonic test aircraft based on the lessons learned from the program emerged. Lockheed is planning to do just that with the X-24C, a more powerful version of the X-24B. The X-24C will be significantly larger than its predecessor and is designed to achieve supersonic speeds at high altitudes using a turbofan engine.

There are unsubstantiated claims that this program morphed into a top-secret program, code-named Copper Coast, that was secretly flown out of Area 51 in the 1980s. It is certainly possible that advanced research into hypersonic flight never completely stopped, and that there may have been many high-speed test flights using exotic experimental vehicles that occurred at the base over the decades.