The Janet flights carry workers from Las Vegas to Area 51, the
Tonopah Test Range, Edwards AFB (North Base), and other "spook"
areas. The Janet Terminal is in it own "secure" area at McCarran.
This photo was taken just outside the secure area. [If you have a
GPS, go to N36 05.602 W115 09.888] There is much confusion on the
net as to which road leads to the terminal, due to the fact that
the general area has been rebuilt over the years and the map makers
haven't kept up. I claim you take Mandalay Bay to get to this spot.
The 737 in the background has the standard red strip around the
middle used by the Janet planes. The license plates have been
altered to protect the innocent.
Janet is the de facto name for a small fleet of passenger
aircraft operated by defense contractor EG&G. Their aircraft
currently serve mostly the Nevada Test Site (most notably Area 51)
from their terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport,
and until the early 1990s also flew regular flights from Bob Hope
Airport in Burbank, California.
The origin of the word "Janet" is obscure and, while it is used
as a radio callsign, it is not known whether the name is an
official name, code word, or acronym. The name Janet is often
suggested to stand for 'Just Another Non Existent Terminal',
referring to the terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport. Under
military approach control approaching Area 51, the callsign changes
from Janet to one of many code names. Flight tracking website
FlightAware shows WWW as being the airlines' ICAO identifier.
The Janet fleet comprises six Boeing 737-600s painted white with
a prominent red cheatline. In addition there are five smaller
executive turboprops (two Beechcraft 1900s and three Beechcraft
200Cs) painted white with less prominent blue trim stripes. The
fleet is registered to the Department of the Air Force, while some
earlier members were registered to several civil aircraft leasing
corporations. A number of the recently retired 737-200s were
modified from a military T-43A aircraft. One of the 737-200s with
registration N5177C in the 1980s was briefly based in Germany at
Frankfurt International Airport (which was at the time also home to
a USAF base, Rhein-Main Air Base), and was operated by Keyway Air
Transport as its sole aircraft, which also appears to have been a
US government operation with Keyway Air Transport merely being a
front company, but no further details on its operation are
known.
The 737-200 fleet was recently phased out with the arrival of
the 737-600s. All the new aircraft are ex-Air China and with the
exception of N273RH and N365SR were previously operated by the now
defunct China Southwest Airlines before being acquired for US Air
Force operations starting in 2008. Most of the Beechcraft airplanes
were sold directly to the Air Force, except for two, which had
civilian owners first.
** Please put the cache back and
make sure it is not exposed **
Kid friendly
Plenty of parking
Beware of muggles
Re-hide cache so it doesn't get Muggled
Ninja skills preferred
Bring a Pen or Pencil
May contain trackables
*Tweezers (Optional Geocaching tool)
*Flashlight (For Night Ops)
FTF (First To Find)
was
rhorner1 Congrats!
The infamous Fourth
To
Find
(F.T.F.) was Dr Webe