Area 51
The Graphic History of America's Most Secret Military Installation
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
The actual history of the United States' worst-kept military secret revealed in graphic format.
Though nearly everyone has heard of it, almost no one has known anything about it . . . until now. Located in the remote Nevada desert near the dry bed of Groom Lake, Area 51 is the most famous military installation in the world that doesn't "officially" exist. In Area 51, author Dwight Zimmerman and artist Greg Scott unravel the real history - minus the aliens and sci-fi movie plots - revealing in detail how for more than 60 years, the CIA, the U.S. Air Force, and aerospace company Lockheed Martin have all used Area 51 as a staging ground for test flights of experimental or highly classified aircrafts. Scott illustrates the Archangel-12 as well as follow-on aircrafts, such as the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter, while author Zimmerman tells the history of how they sprang from the research and development conducted at Area 51. This first-of-its-kind graphic history strips away the fantastical aspects of this mysterious location and establishes the actual, significant history made there.
"Zimmerman's rendition of the Area 51 story is a walk down memory lane for this former USAF insider. It superbly captures the history, mystery and folklore of one of America's best-kept secrets. Riveting, accurate, and thought-provoking for anyone with - and even those without - a Need-to-Know!" - Michael Angley Colonel, USAF (ret) Special Agent, OSI (ret)
"Of all the books written about Area 51, the best and most accurate is the striking new graphic history written by best-selling author Dwight Jon Zimmerman and expertly illustrated by comic-book artist Greg Scott. Military historians and aviation enthusiasts will love it, as will anyone else who wants a fascinating and easy-to-digest history of America's most secret site. UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists and sci-fi fans might not find exactly what they're looking for here (though I suspect they'll enjoy it too), but this is the real story of the place where a handful of intelligence chiefs, aeronautical engineers and test pilots made history and changed the world." - Nick Pope (UK Ministry of Defense, 1985-2006)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The proving ground for many famed spy planes, stealth bombers, and predecessors of the current remote-controlled predator drone, conspiracy hot-spot Area 51 has played a key role in virtually every U.S. military operation stretching back to the early days of the Cold War. The military's hush-up secrecy and "deny and stonewall" response to civilian sightings of test flights in its vicinity inspired popular myths about the facility's "true" purpose: that it harbors salvaged extraterrestrial spacecraft and bodies; that it was the staging ground for the lunar landing hoax; and that it serves as the locus for a network of tunnels connecting military installations and laboratories across the country. Zimmerman (The Vietnam War: A Graphic History) debunks such magical thinking with his comprehensive overview of the major programs and initiatives that have preoccupied the Area 51 think tank over the decades. Though his densely detailed chapters plod in spots, they get the lift they need from Scott's (X-Files: Year Zero) artwork, which crisply visualizes the variety of aircraft while providing historical context by putting familiar faces on each era's political and historical personalities. Chapters on fanciful craft that never got past the drawing-board stage and the future of Area 51 in the wake of its outing in the late '80s only add to the mystique of America's most secretive military base.
