The Long Runway

A place that's shrouded with secrecy tends to breed rumors and legends, often leading to wild exaggerations. While some are nearly impossible to track down, others, like the length of the runways, are fairly easy to document and measure.

The main runway, often called the longest in the world, is actually well defined, thanks to satellite images and USGS topographic maps. Using these images, plus pictures and first hand viewing and then plotting reference points on USGS maps I could quite easily scale the length of the parts of the runway. For the satellite image I used the poster available from the Area 51 Research Center, with a Landsat satellite image from a former Fort Irwin, CA website as a check. The USGS maps were the Groom Mine and Papoose Range 7.5 minute quadrangles.

The paved portion, what I consider to be the actual runway, came first. The threshold and fixed distance markers are easily seen on the satellite image so I could make a threshold to threshold measurement. The result surprised me. 12,750 feet. That's hardly the longest runway in the world! The main east/west runway at Las Vegas is longer, as are runways at most major airports.

OK. Maybe if you count the "over run" areas it still is the longest. The north end over run, which runs across the lake bed, becomes a bit nebulous when it exits the northwest shore, but its somewhere between 14,000 and 16,000 feet. The south over run, including a 200 foot blast pad, is 3200 feet. The grand total comes to 31,950 feet, or just a bit over 6 miles. The longest in the world? Maybe. I don't know them all, and I'm not interested in trying to measure any others. But when I read an article about Groom Lake that talks about a 12 mile long runway, I'll have to think twice before believing the author.

What about the new, parallel runway? Satellite photos were only available up to 1994 and the construction wasn't complete then. Recent views and pictures from Tikaboo Peak could not provided any more information. If the preliminary grading is an indication of the final length, a best guess would be 13,000 to 14,000 feet. No work could be seen for any over run areas, either in the lake bed or to the south.

As a cross check of my methods I also measured the original runway, the "Watertown Strip", or at least what can still be discerned on the satellite image. It came to 4,750 feet, which is reasonably close to the 1 mile mentioned in most books on the history of Area 51. A further check was measuring the distance of the touchdown zone and fixed distance markers on the main runway. It came to within 1% of the known 500 foot intervals.

Close enough for government work.