RAF Lyneham

Royal Air Force Station Lyneham
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGDL
IATA code	LYE
Coordinates	51 ° 30 ′ 19 ″  N , 1 ° 59 ′ 36 ″  W Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 19 ″  N , 1 ° 59 ′ 36 ″  W
Height above MSL	156 m (512  ft )
Transport links
Street	10 km to the
Basic data
opening	May 18, 1940
operator	Royal Air Force
Runways
06/24	2386 m × 45 m asphalt
18/36	1826 m × 45 m asphalt

The Royal Air Force Station Lyneham , or RAF Lyneham for short , was an air force base of the British Royal Air Force near Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, southern England . After the Second World War , the base was initially the main base for strategic transport aircraft and, from June 1970 to 2011, was solely responsible for tactical air transport for the British military . The airfield was designed for 24-hour operation. The RAF troop flag was lowered on December 20, 2012.

history

RAF Lyneham was unofficially put into operation by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939 with initially 14 hangars planned as depots and a grass runway, the official opening did not take place until May 18, 1940. Originally only reserve units were to be stationed there, but the outbreak of the second World War changed the plans. In 1940 the station became a training center for British fighter pilots. A year later bomber crew training began in Lyneham. In the course of the war, a large number of transport aircraft were also stationed here to supply the British troops at the theaters of war.

After the war, in addition to the maintenance unit, only the strategic transport flight squadron, which had been in RAF Lyneham 511 Squadron ( 511 Squadron ) since 1942, with its Avro York remained in place and in 1947 two more York squadrons were added with the 99th and 206th Squadron . During the Berlin blockade in 1948, the transport planes were relocated to RAF Wunstorf near Hanover in order to maintain the airlift . This time was used to fundamentally modernize the base. New warehouses, accommodations and dispatch buildings were built. The two runways were also expanded.

After their return from Lower Saxony, however, instead of the dissolved 206th, the 242nd Squadron came back as the third squadron, and the three Lynehamer squadrons upgraded to the propeller-driven Handley Page Hastings at the end of 1949 . The following year the 242nd Squadron was renamed the 53rd Squadron , the latter and the 511th Squadron were in Lynham until 1957.

In July 1956, the 216th Squadron , relocated the previous year from Egypt to RAF Lyneham, took the jet-powered De Havilland DH.106 Comet into operation as the first transport squadron . One of the runways was extended from 1,800 m to 2,400 m for the new transport jets. Plans to use the base as a base for the V-Force's strategic bombers were not implemented, but it served as an alternative location for the bomber fleet.

The 99th Squadron converted in the first half of 1959 as the first RAF squadron to the Bristol Britannia and at the end of the year the re-established 511 Squadron was added as the second unit . The Comet C2 was operated with the 216th until 1967, after that, until it was decommissioned, only the improved Comet C4, which had flown in parallel since the early 1960s. In addition to the "normal" long-distance troop transports, the royal family also regularly used the Comets.

In the 1960s, RAF Lyneham became the RAF's largest logistical base and in 1967 the first Lockheed C-130K Hercules C1 transport aircraft arrived at the 36th Squadron . In 1968 the 24th Squadron , previously stationed at RAF Colerne , moved to Lyneham and in the 1970s all Hercules machines were brought together here. For this purpose, the two Britannia squadrons, the 99th and 511th Squadron , moved to RAF Brize Norton , the new strategic base.

The 30th and 47th Squadron relocated from RAF Fairford in 1971 , followed in the same year by the 48th from RAF Changi , thus forming the C-130 Lyneham Transport Wing five squadrons . In 1976, the 70th Squadron, previously located in RAF Akrotiri , completed the C-130 squadron, which consisted of six squadrons for a short time. In the same year, the 36th and 48th Squadron were decommissioned, so that the C-130 squadron consisted of four squadrons until 2010. The last remaining strategic squadron, the 216th with its Comets, was also deactivated in 1976. RAF Lyneham, at that time also the home base of the Hercules re-training unit ( 242nd Operational Conversion Unit ), was the RAF's largest operational base in 1976.

The station, with its four Hercules squadrons, was still one of the largest and most important British air force bases. All missions by British soldiers around the world were supported by Hercules transport aircraft from Lyneham. Part of the fleet was converted to the longer C-130K Hercules C3 and two of the squadrons, the 24th and 30th Squadron, converted to the C-130J Hercules C4 / C5 from 1999. In 2005, a Hercules was shot down over Iraq, killing 10 people.

On July 4, 2003, the Royal Air Force Strike Command in High Wycombe decided to close RAF Lyneham . All aircraft will be relocated to Brize Norton by July 1, 2011; the base will be officially closed on December 31, 2012. Plans to continue using it as a bomber base were abandoned in 2004.

The airport was used as the central supply airport for the British troops in Afghanistan . The remains of British soldiers who fell in Afghanistan have also been brought back to England via this airfield since 2007. The soldiers' coffins were then driven in procession through the nearby town of Royal Wootton Bassett .

In the course of the decommissioning of the C-130K, the 70th Squadron was disbanded in September 2010, the remaining machines from then on only flew with the 47th Squadron. In the second quarter of 2011, the remaining "Fat Alberts", the RAF Hercules' nickname, moved to their new home, RAF Brize Norton, and flight operations were suspended at the end of September of that year.

future

In mid-July 2011 it was announced that the property would in future be used for all types of technical training for the armed forces of the United Kingdom. RAF Lyneham was closed in December 2012, the tender for the Defense College to be built was started in 2012. The Defense Infrastructure Organization (DIO) is the new owner of the property, and the college should be fully established by 2020.

Incidents

• On April 11, 1946, the landing gear of an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force ( aircraft registration number MW180 ) collapsed during landing at RAF Station Lyneham. All inmates survived. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

• On March 14, 1947, the landing gear of an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW202) could not be locked when approaching the RAF station Lyneham. It then collapsed on landing, causing irreparable damage to the aircraft. All occupants survived the accident.

• On November 5, 1947, the brakes of an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (MW207) failed when landing at RAF Station Lyneham. The plane came off the runway and only came to a standstill on a hedge. All occupants, crew members and passengers survived. The machine was damaged beyond repair.

• On July 12, 1951, a Royal Air Force Vickers Valetta C.1 (VW194) caught an engine fire shortly after taking off from RAF Lyneham Air Force Base. The pilots wanted to return to the airfield, but turned off the still functioning engine, whereupon the machine flew into the ground near the air force base. All 10 occupants on board, three crew members and seven passengers, were killed.

• On November 27, 1952, an Avro York Mk.I of the British Surrey Flying Service (G-AMGM) sank so far below the prescribed glide path during a radar approach to RAF Lyneham station that it fell into trees and a hill at a high rate of descent. Contributing factors were strong falling gusts , poor visibility and errors by the pilots and the radar pilot. The aircraft was on a transfer flight from London Stansted Airport . All three crew members survived.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Future Brize takes off , Ministry of Defense . November 23, 2009. 
2. ↑ accident report Avro York MW180 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2020th
3. ↑ accident report Avro York MW202 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2020th
4. ↑ accident report Avro York MW207 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2020th
5. ↑ accident report Valetta VW194 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 11 2020th
6. ↑ James J. Halley: Broken Wings. Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents . Air-Britain (Historians), Tunbridge Wells, 1999, ISBN 0-85130-290-4 , p. 116.
7. ^ Accident report Avro York G-AMGM , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 6, 2020.