A few Janet photos

town square
The Town Square shopping center replaced that abandoned time share next to Fry's Electronics in Las Vegas. The planes come roaring over the shopping center on approach to McCarran. Here are a few Janets, all shots on 3.13.2009

N5294e

The cargo door has the number 165 on it. No idea what that means. Close up photo:
165 on the cargo door

N5175u

n20ra

A few F18;s landed at McCarran during Red Flag:
164701

164709
165190


[edit: fixed links]

[edit on 21-3-2009 by 12m8keall2c]

Good pictures gariac, the Beechcraft 1900 aircraft (n20ra) performs some kind of transport system to Groom Lake and TTR?

www.lazygranch.com...

It is hard to say what the exact use of the Beech Janets is versus the 737 Janets. It is known the Beech Janets go to the less routine locations. Palmdale is the most routine location for the Beechcraft. However, they make regular runs to Groom and the TTR. When N27RA crashed, it was ferrying JT3 employees between Groom tot the TTR very early in the AM. I've tracked the Beech Janets to Northern California wine country a few times, and photographed N661BA at the Nut Tree in Vacaville.
Janet airlines

From listening to the Groom Lake on the scanner and from the security procudruing discussed in "Red Eagles", being on one of these secret aircraft isn't enough to get you on-base. When you land at Groom, they go to the badge office. In "Red Eagles", if your palm scan didn't work, you were arrested until they could confirm your identity.

It is really easy to tell which Beech Janet is landing at Groom. Take the callsign of the month and add the last number in the registration. So N661BA landing at Groom with callsign of the month being "mother" would be Mother 1, N20RA would be Mother 0, etc. The WWW flights have less of a pattern to them, other than 2xx for arrival and 3xx for return flights.

A bit more on shooting the Janets. You need toi listen to the approach and tower for a heads up. It is pretty easy to spot a 737 janet early enough to get a shot with the tail number. No so with the Beech, but you shoot any Beechcraft you see.

reply to post by gariac


Nice clear photos Gariac.

I always wondered why more Janet passengers that have been photographed disembarking from the terminal have not been "outed" publicly. It wouldn't be that difficult to track down the employees and blackmail or "buy" their secrets.

Any ideas.

I remember one PI that followed an employee to his house in Las Vegas and knocked on his door.

Note: I am not encouraging anyone to do what I have describes.

Glenn Campbell established the etiquette of behavior around Groom Lake, (place and personnel) , and of course violated it completely. If you publish a photo of a dude or a person on a Janet, they could lose their job. At the very least, it will lead to an investigation. Since these are just working schmucks, albeit with a cool top secret job, there is no use in causing them grief. I disguise the license plates of cars around the facilities if they are private, hide their faces if photographed, etc. The dudes don't bother to hide their faces around me since they know I don't publish their photos.

Given the new construction around the Janet terminal, it is a lot harder to get a clear view of the facility. I didn't bother renting a room in the Tropicana to shoot the fleet. I think the place is not as likely to be torn down given the real estate crash. You probably can't see into the waiting room any more. I assume you can see the passengers on the aircraft stairs.

That documentary where the PI followed the worker was a low point in Area 51 documentaries, which of course isn't saying much since their never has been a decent documentary. Remember, they write the script before heading out to shoot the area. That was the same documentary where the PI and Bob Grove were at the back gate and stayed behind some pole that they thought was the border. You can go right up to the back gate. People even stick stuff on the gate arms, though I think that is questionable, or at least tacky since you are defacing government property. Which reminds me, some jerk shot an arrow through the tail fin of the missile "gate guard" for the TTR. Yeah, I have a photo, though I don't know if I will bother to upload it since that just encourages more of this nonsense. A bit two faced of me since I did publish the defaced "open range" signs with the UFO and beams stenciled on them, but at least that was entertaining defacement.

It may be that protecting the identity of Groom workers is the wrong thing to do. This has been discussed periodically. If you start to expose the names of employees, the place becomes less secret, perhaps encouraging the government to loosen up a bit. I still favor protecting individuals, but exposing whatever else I can do to encourage the base to drop the secrecy.

Back to the Tropicana, I met an UK visitor at the Speedway photographing Nellis aircraft. His reservation was for a room in the Island tower facting the airport, and the hotel just screwed him. Since they deduct the first days stay from your credit card, he got a room at Hooters. I can tell you that the best view from Hooters is that of the Hooter girls, not the Janet terminal. Due to the construction, I think a better bet would be to park in long term parking at McCarran, though you never see the passengers from that location.