| So far I've not seen any comments that consider the wider context of the location in speculating what the aircraft may be. Specifically, this aircraft is on the D1 taxi-way of the isolated EXTREMELY tall hanger 25 (H25) [2] at the south end of the runways, away from almost all other facilities. Hanger 25 and the E1/D1 taxi-ways connecting it can be fully appreciated in aerial photographs [3] looking north published by dreamlandresort (DR). The hanger has direct links to both runways - the primary 14/32 (via taxi-way E1) and the short secondary (unmarked) 12/30 that only serves category A or B aircraft (via taxi-way D1). Back in 2014 as hanger 25 was being constructed there were ground and aerial photographs that revealed the hanger's large size and especially its height which could accommodate a Boeing 747 tail rudder. There was much speculation [4] that it may support a project that has a mothership with 'parasite' aircraft attached. It may be what we're seeing in this new imagery from Planet Labs is a 'parasite' flying-wing aircraft. It's possible, based on remote location on the airfield, that this facility is supporting an ultra-high altitude or space launch system (think Virgin Galactic style). Mothership carries the parasite aircraft to a high altitude (taking off from runway 14/32) before it is released to climb to a higher altitude or possibly into very low earth orbit (100km+ altitude). Note: structure references from page 5 of the Jeppesen HOMEY/KXTA airfield/airspace charts [0] published at dreamlandresort (DR) [1] [0] https://dreamlandresort.com/maps/KXTA.pdf [1] https://dreamlandresort.com/maps/index.html [2] https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/5279/area-51s-massive-... [3] https://dreamlandresort.com/area51/aerial_1220_07.jpg [4] https://jalopnik.com/new-panoramic-images-show-area-51-s-new... |
It never occurred to me that these would even publicly exist (unclassified, anyway), let alone that they'd be so complete.