Top secret Air Force jets are caught making mysterious trips to Area 51

Flight tracking data has captured the path of three US Air Force jets, showing they made trips to the highly classified Area 51 in the Nevada desert on Wednesday.

The planes are part of the military's top-secret passenger jet Janet fleet that flies contractor employees, Department of Defense staff and military personnel to secure spaces that house classified information.

All three Janet aircraft took off from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas about 18 miles from the secret base.

The first, labeled Janet 33, left the runway at 7:09am ET and landed at 7:24am.

The next craft, Janet 32, departed from Las Vegas at 9:38am and touched down at 9:56am. The most recent flight, Janet 46, took off at 2:11pm and landed in the same area 18 minutes later.

Janet, which is said to stand for Joint Air Network for Employee Transportation' or 'Just Another Non-Existent Terminal, or 'Just Another None Existent Terminal,' has a fleet of six Boeing 737 jets.

While the reasons for the flights are unknown, Area 51 is located within the US Air Force's Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR).

The site is also rumored to host crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft and otherworldly technologies.

The Janet, designed by Boeing, is a white jet with a single red strip from front to back.

The jets depart from the Las Vegas airport from a terminal and parking lot dedicated to the highly classified and are mainly used to take personnel to Area 51 as it does not support commuting by vehicle.

FlightAware, a live flight tracking website, shows all three jets taking a similar path to Area 51 today, each taking only a few minutes to complete.

However, flight tracker ADS-B Exchange captured at least 18 Janet jets flying from Las Vegas to Area 51 since February 20. 

A known reason for military personnel to travel to Area 51 is for testing and developing highly classified aircraft and weapons systems.

Area 51 gained notoriety during the Cold War when it was used to test the U-2 spy plane, which was crucial for intelligence gathering against the Soviet Union. 

The craft is still used today to monitor Mexican drug cartels and other threats to the US.

The secret Janet fleet started operations in 1972, making their first flight to Area 51 established in 1955.

Area 51 has six runways for the Janet planes to land, including a monster 12,000-foot-long strip that is among the longest in the world. 

The secrecy surrounding Area 51 has fueled widespread conspiracy theories about its true purpose, but a resurfaced interview from  an aviation journalist with firsthand sources who have worked there said the truth could be revealed this year.

Jim Goodall gave an interview in the mid-1990s where he discussed top-secret technologies at the site that 'would make George Lucas envious.'

'One gentleman spent 12 of his 30 years in black programs at Groom Lake [as Area 51 is also known],' Goodall explained in the unearthed documentary interview.

'I asked him, 'Can you really tell me what's happening out there?'' he continued.

'And he said, 'Well, there's a lot of things going on there that I won't be able to tell you until the year 2025.''

The mention of '2025' could refer to an executive order by then-President Bill Clinton, which established a 25-year timer for the 'automatic declassification' of government secrets.

This means many top-secret projects from the 1990s could soon be declassified.

Goodall recounted a conversation with a 'safety specialist' and US Air Force chief master sergeant who worked at the Nevada test site.

The specialist reportedly told him: 'We have things out there that are literally out of this world… better than Star Trek.' or anything you can see in the movies.'

When Goodall asked his anonymous source, 'Do you believe in UFOs?' the answer was unequivocal.

'He looked at me with a straight face, one-on-one, and said, 'Absolutely. Positively. They do exist,'' Goodall recalled in the documentary.

'I said, 'Can you expand upon that?' And he replied, 'No, I can't.''

From his vantage point spying on Area 51 in the Nevada desert, Goodall caught glimpses and heard firsthand accounts of exotic craft that defied conventional understanding.

'There is a stealth or low-observable electronic warfare aircraft. It's been referred to as 'Excalibur,'' he said in the interview.

'There's an aircraft designed to fly very, very high, but also very, very slow and incredibly quiet,' he add.

Goodall also discussed how witnesses near the Skunk Works facility reported seeing three triangle-shaped craft that made 'no noise,' even when flying at relatively low altitudes.

He then shared reports of an aircraft tracked by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) out of the San Francisco Bay Area TRACON (Traffic Control) in Oakland, California.

This craft, spotted at least eight times since 1986, reportedly flew through controlled airspace at speeds exceeding 10,000 miles per hour.

'And it's a very, very large aircraft at that,' he added.

Goodall's accounts align with claims made on the record by Ben Rich, the late director of Lockheed Martin's classified Skunk Works division.

'Ben Rich told me twice before he died,' Goodall recounted, ''We have things at Area 51 that you and the best minds in the world won't even be able to conceive of for another 30 or 40 years—and they won't be made public for another 50.''

Rich died on January 5, 1995.

But Goodall today noted that Area 51 has become much more difficult to penetrate than during his 1990s heyday — which might indicate it will hold on to its secrets well beyond 2025, matching a timeline closer to Rich's 50-year window.

'That veil is pretty thick today,' Goodall told Las Vegas TV news reporter George Knapp in 2019. 'The security around Area 51 is thicker than we've ever seen.'