RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow

RAF Henlow
Henlow
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGWE
Coordinates	52 ° 0 ′ 55 ″  N , 0 ° 18 ′ 11 ″  W Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 55 ″  N , 0 ° 18 ′ 11 ″  W
Height above MSL	45 m (148  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	5 miles northwest of Letchworth Garden City
Street	(Henlow) 9 km to (Brampton)
Basic data
opening	1917
operator	Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force Station Brampton Wyton Henlow , RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow for short , were three organizationally related stations of the British Royal Air Force in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire . Previously, RAF Brampton , RAF Wyton and RAF Henlow were independent stations. In the mid-1990s, after the end of flight operations in Wyton and the closure of a headquarters in Brampton, these two facilities, which are 12 km apart, were initially placed under a common command. Henlow, 50 km further south, joined in 2001 together with RAF Stanbridge , which in turn is 30 km west of Henlow. This so-called "tri-station" base was dissolved again in 2012 with a view to planned site closings.

history

"Tri-Station" base

For nearly two decades, the facility was the largest base of the British Air Force, both geographically and in terms of manpower. The main task of the station was to support and accommodate various units such as the Director General Logistics (Strike) in Wyton and the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Center (JARIC) in Brampton. Henlow was home to the Center for Aviation Medicine, among other things . Stanbridge has been the location of data processing for RAF logistics since 1980. Military training flights with light motor gliders were carried out by the 57th (Reserve) Squadron with Grob Tutor trainers. On April 2, 2012, the organization was dissolved and RAF Brampton renamed Brampton Camp RAF Wyton .

RAF Brampton

The United States Army Air Corps moved into the Brampton Park buildings in the spring of 1942 , and on August 19, Brampton officially became the headquarters of the 1st Bomb Wing . One year after the end of the war, the last American soldiers left Brampton in 1946. After it was decided in 1955 to use Brampton permanently for military purposes, a building program began, as a result of which Brampton became the location of various command authorities and the headquarters of the RAF.

The site was abandoned in late 2013 and sold to a real estate company that developed the Brampton Park residential area here.

RAF Henlow

Henlow became an aircraft manufacturing site as early as the First World War . The location also fulfilled this function in the interwar period . In the 1930s, the station was one of the largest in the RAF. Henlow was an important maintenance base during World War II . Brampton lost this job after the war. During the following decades it was home to a large number of non-flying associations until the present, independent again since 2012. The location is subordinate to the Air Command .

In September 2016, the UK Ministry of Defense announced that it would be giving up RAF Henlow. Living space is to be created here.

RAF Wyton

see RAF Wyton

Others

A few kilometers north of Brampton and Huntingdon there is another military airfield, RAF Alconbury , which is mainly used by the United States Air Forces in Europe .

Web links

• Website of the RAF Station Henlow

Individual evidence

1. ^ RAF Brampton has been sold to St Ives developers Campbell Buchanan, Cambridge News, March 12, 2014
2. ↑ Plans for 500 homes at RAF Brampton set for approval, Cambridge News, November 11, 2015
3. ↑ RAF Henlow to be sold for new homes, Hertfordshire Mercury, September 6, 2016 ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.