Area 51 Palmdale facility. A search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 was conducted under the same extreme security as the rest of the project. He notified Lockheed, who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake. According to Lockheed's U-2 designer Kelly Johnson: The lakebed made an ideal strip from which they could test aircraft, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter, about north of Las Vegas, protected the test site from visitors. The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land, designated "Area 51" on the map, and add it to the Nevada Test Site.
Ohio State Route 51 and US 223 end here as well. The original route of State Route 51 was that of current State Route 49 in western Ohio. The route was generally changed from 51 to 49 until the entire route became 49 in 1935. A new State Route 51 was certified in 1955, with its southern terminus where it is now and its northern terminus at then-State Route 120 (close to where I-280 is now) in Northwood. State Route 51 was extended to State Route 2 in Oregon in 1959. In 1989, State Route 51 replaced the route of U.S. Route 223 though