Major Expansion at Area 51

The top-secret military reservation at Groom Lake, Nevada, long thought to be the Air Force's test site for experimental aircraft (so experimental that it was reverse engineered from UFOs, if you buy the wildest conjecture), is expanding with the construction of several new buildings and roads, according to satellite footage. Speculation mounts that it may be part of an expanded Defense Department investment in experimental craft since 9/11:

[Defense Technology International Editor-in-Chief Bill] Sweetman suggests "there is only one reason for a base like this: to flight-test hardware that is secret and visibly different from other aircraft." The new hangar, he continues, might "include experimental platforms pushing the boundaries of stealth, particularly in terms of allowing aircraft to persist undetected around the clock, and experimental [unmanned aerial vehicles] and [unmanned combat aerial vehicles]."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/07/groom-lake-expa.html - via the Anomalist [Image and more details]