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.
U.S. Route 51 in Kentucky U.S. Route 51 in Kentucky U.S. Route 51 (US 51) in Kentucky runs through the western portion of the state from the Tennessee state line at Fulton to the Illinois state line at Cairo, Illinois. It is a mostly rural route, also serving the towns of Clinton, Arlington, Bardwell and Wickliffe. It also carries part of the Great River Road near the northern end of its route in Kentucky. US 51 mainly runs through the Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky, spanning the four westernmost counties in Kentucky, beginning with a four-lane section crossing the state line, which begins a concurrency