Mystery at Salt Flat

Early in 2009 I was talking with a business associate who had been working in the Salt Flat, Texas area, which is about half way between Carlsbad, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. He mentioned that he had noticed a lot of aircraft activity in this unpopulated and desolate area. Specifically he mentioned C-130s and Cessna Caravans operating out of a bladed-out strip on the edge of the big Salt Flat, itself. He supplied a location of the airport. This location is shown below. The agricultural area in the upper left is Dell City, Texas. The mountains to the upper right are the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas and New Mexico. The airport is at the location of the red dot near the bottom center. It does not show on any satellite photo I have been able to find, so I believe it to be quite new.

The person who told me about the airport supplied an aerial photo that showed part of the runways, but nothing else.

A few days later I flew to the location to take a look. The photo below shows the overall layout. The longer runway which goes from lower left to upper right, in the photo, is on the order of 7,500 to 8,000 feet long. That length is sufficient to handle very large aircraft.

I had a tentative plan to look over the operation, take some photos and make a low pass down a runway to figure out how good the surface was.  I was very surprised to find, not only a good sized building, but many vehicles present on a Friday afternoon. Altogether there were about 20 cars, trucks and vans plus trailers and a front end loader.


The question is; what is going on? It is difficult to think of what would require such infrastructure and staffing out in the middle of nowhere.  I have sent the above picture to friends who have pointed out many interesting things such as the size of the building isn't really adequate for the number of people who seem to be on site and the fact that there are no power lines. Water and sewer are also a question. Notice the roadlike extension to the lower right of the above photo. There are monolith type structures that alternate left and right along this cleared area.

I don't know who's land this operation is on, but a couple of sources indicate that it is owned by Jeff Bezos, the dot com billionaire who owns a lot of ranch land in the area. Mr. Bezos has a private rocket launch facility about 15 miles SE of the mystery airport.


Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin facility


Blue Origin

So what is it? Maybe Mr. Bezos is involved. Could this be where he flies in equipment for Blue Origin? Seems a bit far away, although the distance would be enough to allow use of the airport during the FAA temporary flight restrictions that are in place at times. The Blue Origin facility seems pretty quiet lately. In fact on the day I flew over, there was much more activity at the mystery airport.

One also has to wonder about government operations. The aircraft below sometimes is based at the Carlsbad, NM airport for periods of time.



If one Googles the N number (N196D) one finds photographs of this particular airplane at locations around the world. It is registered to a leasing company but many believe it is operated by the CIA. When it leaves Carlsbad it tends to fly southwest and often comes back covered with dust. It could be mistaken for a C-130 because it is close in size and configuration.

I don't know what is going on, but something is! I intend to keep this page updated with further information I may receive.

3/1/09 I took some additional photos on a Sunday afternoon. The big difference is that no vehicles or people were present. I got a little better detail.

3/4/09

A friend contacted me with information from contacts he has in the Salt Flat, Texas area. They indicated that this facility is a Jeff Bezos operation. Not much other information at this time.

3/13/09

New developments today. I got a report from on the ground at the Salt Flat Cafe.

1. The previous report that the airport is a Jeff Bezos operation is in error. That refers to a different airport.

2. Military trucks enter the facility at night through a gate near the Salt Flat Cafe. The route traverses property that they have an interest in.

3. There are helicopters operating in the area that drop things.

4. Another facility is being developed west of this one.

5. The project name is "Project Bubba" and there are said to be references to that name on the internet. I haven't found them though.

All for now.



I made another recon flight today, 4/18/09 to see what has changed. There has been a change.

In the photo below you see the west side of the building with two garage door size, or larger, openings that have a wall at the back. Sort of a shed within the building.



 

Today I saw what is below. The two openings have been removed and one smaller door is now on that side. They rebuilt that whole part of the building! Why?



 

Below is some of the earth work around the building. There are two sites that have scrapings and trenches and dead end roads.



 



 




Someone asked me the other day if there is a security fence. I hadn't really looked. The photo above shows the last gate before the site. It is a fairly substantial looking gate but the fence itself seems to be the old ranch fencing. There are two other gates between here and the Salt Flat Cafe. They are probably the ones that have been there all along.

Yes that road is well built and has seen some heavy truck traffic.



I got an e-mail this week, informing me that I hadn't updated the website on the Salt Flat Airport in a while. Guess it was about time, so I went over today 7/26/09. There have been several changes.





In this photo you will notice that there are three new mobile buildings. It appears that one is on footings and in use and two are not yet in use. You will also notice dark material on the ground around the original building and a new structure on the south side.
 



 




 

The center portion of the longer runway is now paved.


 




What is the structure? Maybe a control tower or loading structure of some sort. It looks like the machine parked by it is for loading.

Another intriguing addition is the pipe or drain or something headed down and to the right of the new structure.

Update 9/19/09




It does look like we have your standard issue control tower now.
 



The trailers that were brought in seem to have been formed into a sort of auxiliary area.
 



I have been wanting to get a photo of the sign at the flagpole. This day was moderately rough down low and I was alone in the airplane but I satisfied myself that it can be done with legal separation from the buildings. The camera was getting bumped around pretty good, but I think I does read Elev. 3637 on the third line. Can't make anything else out but it looks like the first two lines may be the name of the facility. This was taken from 600 AGL and about 1,500 feet laterally.
 



A friend questioned whether the black stuff I saw on the runway last time was asphalt. I assured him that it certainly was. Aging shows that it wasn't. It seems to just be more soil stabilizer for the touchdown zone. 

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from a friend who is in law enforcement.

"The aircraft in the picture is a CASA 235  it looks a lot like the ones (paint scheme) used by Presidential Airways which is a subsidiary of X3 ie; Blackwater, and the holding company is 250 miles from their home base in Moyock, NC, so your CIA link may not be to far off, but its more likely a military contract.

The Caravans and helo's sound like military,  a certain military special operations group I'm familiar with trains their shooters to fly Caravans and use them quite a bit. Some of the pictures look like some rough firing range pits, and other desert training venues.  In the last picture, the large trailer near the building is a tank hauler, it is military."





I hadn't been over to Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin for a while so I took a few shots there.
 



 



 



Notice the viewing bleachers.
 



Delaware Mountains.


I need to get a good shot of the flagpole sign!


Update 10/18/09


I got an e-mail yesterday. The sender said he used software to analyze the flagpole photo and came up with the additional words Defense and International. Some one else previously came up with International just by looking. He also agreed on Elev. and I could see 36xx after Elev. The actual elevation is 3625 or so.

I still wanted to get the whole sign so as an experiment I put a very long focal length lens on the camera. That was a disaster for photo quality, I sure wish I had taken the standard setup. I could have at least gotten an N number or two.



Normally on weekends, this place is deserted. As I approached I saw that there were three aircraft and way more vehicles present than I had ever seen. I believe this is a version of the C-130.
 




I think this one is Twin Otter.
 




The social area and picnic tables in the trailer courtyard is now covered.
 



The C-130 which an e-mailer told me is a civilian version sold to foreign governments. I don't see an N number but the photo is not good enough to say there is not one.
 



 



An e-mail suggests the helicopter is likely a Russian MI-8.

Since so much seemed to be going on I just made a 180 over the airport and headed straight back to Carlsbad. When I was about 20 miles out I got a call from the FBO instructing (or asking, I'm not sure) me to call Albuquerque Center when I got on the ground.

The gentleman I talked to asked me if I knew about the NOTAM. I said I did not (I had briefed off a commercial site). He said the military was "very upset" with me for disrupting their operation of parachuting men and materials. He said something about bringing up the NOTAM to read to me, but he did not do so. I asked him to confirm that this is a military operation. He said "it is a military operation" that would continue until around the end of the month.

He never accused me of any illegal activity and he was very courteous. He also did not ask me to not go out there again or anything like that. It was a little intimidating though.

I immediately started looking for the NOTAM. I could not find it using the NavMonster site I had briefed from. I called the FSS and the briefer did find it. She said she put in a route of CNM to SFL VOR and got it that way. I got some help to find the Airspace NOTAM on DUATS.

"Salt Flat [SFL VOR]: October NOTAM #460 issued by Albuquerque NM [ABQ]
Airspace parachute jumping excercise 15 nautical mile radius SFL13307.8 FL200/below 1300-0500 daily effective from October 18th, 2009 at 07:00 AM MDT (0910181300) - October 29th, 2009 at 11:00 PM MDT (0910200600)"

The area of this caution NOTAM is close to 1,000 square miles. V102, V16-94, V222 and V275 all go through this caution area which, by the way, is active pretty much all the time at all altitudes up through flight level 200 (about 20,000 feet). Probably over 100 airplanes a day, at least. I think I got their attention by flying over the airport.

Several interesting things: This NOTAM is the first thing I have seen that actually pinpoints the airport.
This week I got additional confirmation that the land is owned by Jeff Bezos. This was from a nearby rancher.
It seems to be a military operation and Albuquerque Center confirms this.

I still find it quite strange that a military operation would take place on a private ranch, especially since there is a HUGE military reservation very nearby. I recently got an e-mail that said this though

"The only other thing I could think of, is one of the many military contractors building a desert training facility.
If it is a Spec-ops thing, sometimes certain training requires...... well lets just say, the necessity to be out of sight of normal non-Spec-ops commands.  Believe me it happens all the time".

A later e-mail said "they are probably training some foreign military Spec-ops troops in the fine art of military free fall jumps, like high altitude low opening (HALO) or my personal favorite high altitude high opening (HAHO)   If its HAHO that requires a lot of area to do a jump, the purpose is to jump and open high and glide a long distance for cross border or other such covert insertions, all speculation of course..... but educated speculation ;-) ". 

I may get a photo now and then, but at this point I think I have found out about all I am likely to. It is a military operation that is on private land.


Just a few updates from 8/28/10. The airplane referenced above

 

Is operating out of the Salt Flat Airport. I happened to hear them talking to Albuquerque Center recently while one of the "parachute jumping" NOTAMs was out. They were asking about traffic between their location and the "Salt Flat Airport."

Here are the latest photos. There is now a new building and a shed type addition to the original building. Also new to me are the numerous color matched vehicles.







There have also been additions at Jeff Bezo's place.



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