8. Reverse Engineering

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In 1987, a man named Robert Lazar shocked the world when he went on television claiming to have been part of an operation that worked on alien technology. Robert Lazar said that the government has possession of at least nine alien spacecraft at a base called S-4, which is not far from Groom Lake. The facility even had posters showing a UFO levitating several feet above the ground with the caption “They’re Here!” EG&G hired him to help reverse engineer the technology in the alien craft for use in U.S. military vehicles and power production. He discovered a rusty, heavy substance he called “Element 115” that powered the alien spacecraft. Skeptics have thoroughly investigated as many of Lazar’s statements as they can, and many of them appear to be false. For example, Lazar says he holds Masters degrees from CalTech and MIT, but there’s no evidence he ever attended either university. Lazar says this is because the government is actively trying to erase his existence to discredit him. Skeptics believe Lazar is merely fabricating the entire story, and point out that it’s a monumental task to erase someone’s identity — they would have to remove Lazar’s name in everything from official documents to school yearbooks. Even so, Lazar’s statements inspired an explosion of interest in UFOs and Area 51.

One popular claim among Lazar’s believers is that much of our current technology is the result of using reverse engineering on alien spacecraft. Everything from radios to superconductors falls into this category. They argue that people on their own couldn’t possibly have developed these technologies so rapidly without an alien model. Some claim that pilots at Area 51 are using alien technology against aliens themselves, shooting them down so that other military crews can scavenge the parts.

In the next section, we’ll look at even more stories of aliens, government cover-ups and elaborate conspiracies involving Area 51.