Cold War engineers used Area 51 to secretly study and fly captured Soviet fighter jets.

Declassified files show that Area 51 was not just for American planes. The military used it to test captured enemy technology. Under secret projects with names like HAVE DOUGHNUT and HAVE DRILL, US pilots flew Soviet MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighter jets. They wanted to find the weaknesses of these enemy planes so American pilots could beat them in combat.