RAF Barkston Heath

Royal Air Force Station Barkston Heath
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGYE
Coordinates	52 ° 57 '44 "  N , 0 ° 33' 42"  W Coordinates: 52 ° 57 '44 "  N , 0 ° 33' 42"  W.
Height above MSL	112 m (367  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	8 km northeast of Lincoln
Street	4 km to the
Basic data
opening	1938
operator	Royal Air Force
Runways
06/24	1831 m × 46 m asphalt
11/29	1282 m × 46 m asphalt
18/36	810 m × 23 m asphalt

The Royal Air Force Station Barkston Heath , RAF Barkston Heath for short , is a military airfield of the British Royal Air Force eight kilometers north-east of Grantham in the county of Lincolnshire , England . It is subordinate to the RAF College Cranwell, about 12 km to the north, and serves as an alternative location . In addition, it serves the RAF for basic training of future pilots of the British Army and Navy pilots . The airfield , which opened shortly before the Second World War , was not structurally changed in later decades, so that it still looks today largely like it did during the war.

history

The airfield was built in the period of armament in the run-up to World War II and, after its opening, served the RAF Flying Training Command . In this role, he was already an alternative to RAF Cranwel I at the time, a role that he still has in the 21st century.

In the run-up to the Allied invasion of Normandy , it was handed over to the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) at the end of 1943 , which used it as a logistical hub. In February 1944 the first C-47s of the 61st Troop Carrier Group arrived at "Station 483", as it is called in the United States. This group was here until March 1945 and a short time later, another American transport association, the 349th Troop Carrier Group and its C-46, was here for a few weeks . In June 1945 the USAAF returned the station to the British Air Ministry .

In the following decades there were no more flying units here, although the airfield was again under the Flying Training Command until 1969. The airfield only served the RAF College Cranwell, to which it had been directly subordinate since 1969, again as an alternate area and the barracks area was occupied by non-flying units. In the 1980s, part of a squadron of Bloodhound anti-aircraft missiles lay here , which had previously been stationed at RAF Brüggen on the Lower Rhine .

Since 1989, Barkston Heath has been a training location for the Cranwell-based No. 3 Flying Training School . Since 1995, training has been carried out by the Joint Elementary Flying Training School on Slingsby Firefly T.2 training aircraft.

Todays use

The training has been carried out since a reorganization in 2003 by the Defense Elementary Flying Training School , to which two squadrons report, the 674th Squadron (Army Air Corps) and the 703rd Naval Air Squadron . The Grob Tutor was replaced by the Grob Prefect T1 in 2018 .

Web links

Commons : RAF Barkston Heath  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• RAF Barkston Heath RAF on the website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 120TP Prefect. Royal Air Force, accessed May 6, 2020 (UK English).