The site is plainly visible from commercial airliners, which pass 17 NM (31 km; 20 mi) north of the base on transcontinental flights.

The 1982 Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Airport Directory described the Tonopah Test Range airfield as having a single 6,600 ft (2,012 m) paved runway.

[7] The advent of Operation Rolling Thunder during the Vietnam War in March 1965 led to the introduction of the obsolete and subsonic MiG-17 (J5) and the supersonic MiG-21 by the North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) being pitted against U.S.

Also in the early 1970s, the concept of "Aggressor Squadrons", was born, using the Northrop F-5E Tiger II, which was found to be nearly identical in terms of maneuvering and speed with the MiG-21 to train front-line combat pilots in Soviet Air Force tactics.

These pilots then were reassigned to the aggressor training units at Clark AB, Philippines, RAF Alconbury, England and Nellis AFB.

[9] Several locations were considered, Michael Army Airfield at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, and the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field on the Goldwater Range in Arizona.

In fact, the security surrounding the Tonopah Test Range was so effective that the new base was not publicly reported as an Air Force military airfield until 1985.

Many of the MiG-21s did not have steerable nose gears, making them difficult to taxi; the sign of a novice Fishbed pilot was the zigzag track he made while moving on the ground.

The decision to shut down operations may have had something to do with the fact that a new generation of Soviet aircraft was entering service and also the inevitable round of budget cuts from Washington.

[24] In March 1991, in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, a team from the Joint Captured Materiel Exploitation Center arrived at Jalibah Southeast Air Base in Iraq.

They returned with a MiG-29 nose, providing Air Force intelligence personnel with a Slot Back I radar and the Fulcrum's infrared search and tracking system.

Later in the decade, Air Force intelligence personnel were able to acquire more complete versions of the MiG-29, the result of spending money rather than fighting a war.

Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found at captured Iraqi Air Force bases were from the Gulf War era.

Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to uncover the MiG, which was over 70 feet long and weighed 25 tons.

The Tactical Air Command ("R"-Unit), also known as the "Baja Scorpions" unit, remained at Groom Lake until the last production F-117 was delivered from Lockheed in July 1990.

During the operational lifetime of the F-117 however, personnel from Tonopah and later Holloman AFB would be temporarily deployed to Groom Lake for various checkout flights of classified elements of the aircraft.

Group personnel would be flown to Tonopah each Monday morning and board a contract Key Airlines Boeing 727-100 aircraft at Nellis AFB, which operated about 15 daily flights between the two bases.

The member would live in dormitories at "Mancamp" during the work week, then fly back to Nellis AFB Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

Along with the A-7Ds that came from England AFB, the group acquired one of the new A-7K twin-seat trainers from the Arizona Air National Guard for checkout flights at Nellis.

[27] In January 1989, just three months after the USAF admitted the F-117A existed, the aging A-7's were replaced with newer T-38A and AT-38B Talon trainers as a measure to streamline the F-117A's training operation.

This relied upon the Identimat hand geometry scanner, a biometric technology acquired by Wackenhut, the same company that provided perimeter security on the TTR.

In the event of an unscheduled landing, the pilots carried a signed letter from a senior Air Force general ordering the base or wing commander to protect the aircraft.

[27] In spite of the tight security, the Air Force was already making plans to “normalize” future support within the AF Logistics Command structure.

This arrangement required the aircraft to be defueled, disassembled, cradled, and then loaded aboard the C-5, flown to the depot, and unloaded before the real work could begin.

The nighttime operations resulted in two F-117A losses due to spatial disorientation, one of the planes crashing 30 miles east of the airfield in October 1987.

A total of 18 F-117s would continue onward to Khamis Mushait Air Base in Saudi Arabia for Operation DESERT SHIELD, followed by hundreds of TTR support personnel.

[27] The second phase of real-world integration came in January 1990 with the announcement that the 37th TFW would move from Tonopah to Holloman AFB, New Mexico, which would ultimately be delayed due to the Gulf War.

In reviewing its tactical bases and the costs of maintaining them, it was determined that the 37th FW operations from Tonopah required considerable logistics support via commercial air and trucking.

In July 2001, a commercial McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft landed at the Tonopah Test Range airfield due to a cargo fire warning light, according to an ASRS report.

[30][31] However, it appears that in 2010, four F-117A aircraft plus two maintenance spares are reportedly back in use for R&D purposes at Groom Lake, but the rest remain in storage at Tonopah.