Area 51: aliens, conspiracy plots, crashed weather balloons, experiments on alien corpses, Agent Scully... A lot of good stuff comes to mind when the name of the most famous classified base is mentioned. What else comes to mind? Agent Scully... Mmmm... let me get my head out of the gutter. What else comes to mind? Ah, yes, top secret airplanes, or "black planes."

Black planes can get really famous whenever the government reveals one of them. Think about the U-2 spyplane of the 1950s; a band's named after that plane now. Then there's the SR-71 Blackbird. The X-men's plane looks awfully similar to the SR-71. Then there's the F-117; during the first Iraq war, it literally became the poster boy for the whole war effort. The first Iraq war was around fifteen years ago. Only three aircraft have been introduced since. One was Polecat. Another was Northrop Grumman’s Tacit Blue, nicknamed "the Whale." The third was Boeing’s Bird of Prey, which tested visual stealth strategies, including shaping that minimizes shadows and contrast and, rumor has it, body illumination that allows it to blend into its background.

This does not mean, however, that the black-aircraft community is dormant. Google Earth reveals a newly constructed additional runway and multiple new hangars and buildings at the base. Increased activity? It may mostly be educated speculation but the nice folks at Popular Science have featured a list of probable planes that are currently being tested at the famous site.

Read on to see concept images of the planes and the evidence and details surrounding them (click on the Full Article link below).