RAF Coningsby

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RAF Coningsby
Long Lens View of RAF Coningsby taken from the top of Tattershall Castle - geograph.org.uk - 1739877.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code EGXC
IATA code QCY
Coordinates

53 ° 5 '35 "  N , 0 ° 9' 58"  W Coordinates: 53 ° 5 '35 "  N , 0 ° 9' 58"  W.
Height above MSL 8 m (26  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 25 km southeast of Lincoln
Street 15 km to the A16
Basic data
opening November 4th 1940
operator Royal Air Force
Start-and runway
07/25 2744 m × 61 m asphalt

i1 i3 i5

i7 i10 i12 i14

The Royal Air Force Station Coningsby , RAF Coningsby for short , is a military airfield of the British Royal Air Force on the southern outskirts of Coningsby in the county of Lincolnshire , England . As the main base of operations for the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft, the base is one of the RAF's busiest.

history

In the course of the upgrade in the run-up to the Second World War , construction began in 1937, but flight operations at RAF Coningsby only began a year after the outbreak of war in the autumn of 1940. The place was a base of the No. 5th Bomber Group of the RAF Bomber Command . Bombers from RAF Coningsby were regularly in action on mostly night missions over the occupied continent and the German Reich . Operations only stopped between September 1942 and August 1943, as the paved runway was not built until these months. The famous No. 617 Squadron "Dambusters" was on the station a few months after Operation Chastise and the reopening. Towards the end of the war, part of the so-called Marker Force was located here , which had the same tasks as the more famous Pathfinder Force of No. 8 Group had.

After the war, the base continued to house bombers with short interruptions, including the Mosquito type before the jet age began in 1953 with the arrival of the first Canberras , which remained stationed in Coningsby until 1961. After a short interlude as an atomic bomber base, three Vulcan squadrons were stationed here, the field was handed over to the Fighter Command and the era of the operation of supersonic fighter planes and fighter bombers , which continues to this day, began . From then on, RAF Coningsby became the home of the (RAF) phantom fleet , initially as a training facility and later also as one of the deployment sites.

In 1976 the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight moved to Coningsby and in the following year " Queen Mum " became Colonel of Honor of RAF Coningsby, a role that her great-grandson William has today (2011) .

After extensive modernization in the course of the conversion to the Phantom 15 years earlier, the NATO- wide program for the construction of so-called Hardened Aircraft Shelters at their most important air bases in Europe was implemented in Coningsby in the early 1980s . Immediately afterwards, the conversion to the interceptor (ADF) variant of the Panavia Tornado (F2 / F3) began, whereby the "home" role of the station, i. H. Training and commitment, remained.

The tornado macaw was drawing to a close at the beginning of the 21st century when the first Typhoon moved to RAF Coningsby in 2005. The No. 121 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) was established on April 1, 2006. None of the flying squadrons belong to the EAW. The base commander is also the EAW commander.

Todays use

Today there are five Typhoon T.3 / FGR.4 squadrons in Coningsby, in addition to two operational squadrons (the 3 (F) and XI Squadron ), the retraining squadron ( 29 (R) Squadron ) and a test squadron ( 41 (R) Squadron ). The fifth unit, the 12th Squadron , which was reactivated as a Typhoon Squadron in 2018, is temporarily a joint training squadron with the Qatar Emiri Air Force . The planes of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight continue to fly from Coningsby.

Airfield features

The tower (TWR) sends and receives on the frequency : 124.675 and 122.1  MHz . The airport has various navigation aids. The runway 07/25 has an instrument landing system (ILS). A Tactical Air Navigation System (TACAN) is available. The location denial is 2 ° west. (Status: 2006)

Others

In addition to the 20 mile RAF Waddington base , Coningsby is one of two remaining RAF stations in Lincolnshire which is home to a number of flying squadrons. During World War II, the county had a number of Bomber Command sites .

RAF East Kirkby

From August 1943, this also included RAF East Kirkby approx. 12 kilometers east-northeast, at whose location there is now a small museum about aviation in Lincolnshire, the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Center . He owns one of three airworthy Lancaster bombers still in existence , the type of aircraft with which two squadrons flew their combat missions from here during the Second World War. The United States Air Force used the base with Air Rescue Squadrons for some time in the early 1950s before it closed in 1958. During flight events, a flight control area is set up in East Kirkby at short notice, which is monitored by air traffic controllers from Coningsby.

See also

Web links

Commons : RAF Coningsby  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RAF Typhoon squadron to train Qatari pilots, Janes, December 15, 2017
  2. ↑ Airport data on World Aero Data ( English, as of 2006 )