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60 free Area 51 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Area 51 trivia quiz covers America's most famous secret base from both sides: the real history of Groom Lake's spy planes and stealth fighters, and the alien folklore that grew up around it. The easy questions handle the basics: which state it is in, the Extraterrestrial Highway, the U-2, the 'camo dudes' and the Independence Day connection. From there it moves through the CIA's Paradise Ranch, Project OXCART and 'The Hook', the captured MiG-21 and MiG-17 dogfights, Have Blue and the Baja Scorpions. The harder half is for aviation and Cold War buffs: the D-21 Tagboard drone, the 1129th Special Activities Squadron, Red Square, the Skylab photograph, the 1994 toxic-burning lawsuit and Clinton's exemption, KXTA appearing in navigation databases, Bob Lazar's S-4 and the Cheshire Airstrip. If you enjoyed our UFO or Cold War quizzes, this is the deep dive on one base. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry for Area 51 before publishing.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which US state does Area 51 lie?
Nevada
It lies 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas inside the Nevada Test and Training Range.
Q 02Roughly how far is Area 51 from Las Vegas?
83 miles
It sits north-northwest of the city inside the Nevada Test and Training Range.
Q 03What is the official name of the airfield at Area 51?
Homey Airport
Its ICAO code is KXTA; it is also simply called Groom Lake after the neighbouring salt flat.
Q 04Area 51 is administered as a remote detachment of which California installation?
Edwards
The CIA transferred jurisdiction of the site to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards in 1979.
Q 05The USAF and CIA acquired the Groom Lake site in 1955 primarily to test which aircraft?
The U-2
Project AQUATONE's Lockheed U-2 needed a site far more secret than Edwards or Palmdale.
Q 06On what date did the CIA publicly acknowledge the base's existence in a declassified history?
25 June 2013
It responded to a 2005 Freedom of Information Act request by Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive.
Q 07State Route 375, which passes near the base and the town of Rachel, is nicknamed what?
The Extraterrestrial Highway
Rachel is a popular tourist stop for UFO enthusiasts.
Q 08Area 51 shares a border with which region, site of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests at the neighbouring test site?
Yucca Flat
The Yucca Mountain waste repository lies southwest of Groom Lake.
Q 09Groom Lake, whose bed serves as runways, is what kind of geographical feature in the desert?
A salt flat
It sits about 4,409 feet above sea level and is roughly 3.75 miles long.
Q 10The name 'Area 51' is believed to come from a numbering grid used by which agency?
The Atomic Energy Commission
Oddly, the site is not part of that grid; it sits next to Area 15.
Q 11Which nickname for the facility is also the approach-control call sign for the surrounding airspace?
Dreamland
The special-use airspace itself is Restricted Area 4808 North.
Q 12Which metals were discovered in the Groom Range in 1864, leading to the mines that gave the district its name?
Lead and silver
The English company Groome Lead Mines Limited financed the Conception Mines in the 1870s.
Q 13What was the CIA codename for the U-2 development project that founded the Groom Lake facility?
AQUATONE
Project director Richard Bissell needed a site with extreme security.
Q 21An Iraqi pilot's defection to Israel in 1966 brought which Soviet fighter to Groom Lake for evaluation?
MiG-21
Captain Munir Redfa flew it out as part of Mossad's Operation Diamond.
Q 22What was the codename of the 1968 program in which US pilots flew the captured MiG-21 in mock dogfights?
HAVE DOUGHNUT
Initial results showed the F-4 and MiG-21 evenly matched; pilot skill made the difference.
Q 23The forbidden exercise airspace above Groom Lake was marked in red on maps and nicknamed what?
Red Square
It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the square in Moscow.
Q 14Which aircraft designer said of Groom Lake, 'within thirty seconds, you knew that was the place'?
Kelly Johnson
He called the dry lake 'as smooth as a billiard table without anything being done to it'.
Q 15The U-2's designer named the new base what, to encourage workers to move to the middle of nowhere?
Paradise Ranch
The name was soon shortened to 'the Ranch'.
Q 16Which aircraft was developed under Project OXCART, for which Area 51 was expanded from 1960?
The A-12
The Lockheed A-12's titanium body flashing past at 2,000-plus mph fooled many airline pilots into reporting UFOs.
Q 17What was 'The Hook' at Area 51?
A spiral marked on the lakebed for aborting landings
The two-mile Archimedean spiral let an A-12 pilot who overran the runway turn instead of plunging into the sagebrush.
Q 18The A-12s at Area 51 were assigned to which CIA-operated unit?
1129th Special Activities Squadron
Nine A-12s were on site by the end of 1963.
Q 19The D-21 was a Mach 3 reconnaissance drone tested at Groom Lake under what codename?
Tagboard
It was launched from the M-21, a two-seat A-12 derivative, until a fatal 1966 collision.
Q 20After the M-21 launch aircraft was lost, D-21B drones were carried by which strategic aircraft instead?
B-52H
The first B-52 attempt in September 1967 failed when the drone simply fell off its pylon.
Q 24Instructors from which new Navy school flew against the captured MiG-17s at Area 51?
Top Gun
By war's end the Navy kill ratio climbed to 8.33 to 1 while the Air Force's improved only slightly.
Q 25The 2017 crash that killed Lt. Col. Eric 'Doc' Schultz at the site reportedly involved which foreign aircraft?
Sukhoi Su-27
Unconfirmed 2022 reports tied it to the classified Foreign Materials Exploitation program.
Q 26Which stealth-fighter prototype, a proof-of-concept for the F-117, first flew at Groom Lake in December 1977?
Have Blue
The first full-scale YF-117A lifted off there on 18 June 1981 with Hal Farley at the controls.
Q 27The F-117 test team at Area 51 adopted what mascot after finding one in their offices?
A scorpion
They called themselves the 'Baja Scorpions'.
Q 28Northrop's Tacit Blue demonstrator, flown at Area 51 by a team called 'the Whalers', directly influenced which aircraft?
The B-2 Spirit
It never entered production but pioneered curved stealth surfaces.
Q 29To which airfield did the first operational F-117 unit move from Groom Lake in 1982-83?
Tonopah Test Range Airport
Area 51 was ideal for testing but not for an operational group.
Q 30What is the name of the small passenger airline that flies workers to Area 51, mainly from Las Vegas?
Janet
It operates on behalf of the USAF from Harry Reid International Airport.