Back in August 2008 myself, along with Gordon White of Skysim and Brian Franklin ( then with Skysim) visited Scampton to aquire photographic material for the scenery Team SDB produced. We were driven around the airfield by the retiring Reds Adjutant.

Eventually discusion got around to the reported vacation of Scampton to Waddington by the Reds. He told us that:

a) Scampton was an English Heritage site and so had to remain in existence add to that the fact that 1 Hangar then [now] housed the Dambusters museum.

b) Even if the Reds moved to Waddington they couldn’t practise there and would still have to practise over Scampton. That would mean manning the tower, fire crew and ground crew attendance probably even even the Medical Centre remaining operational. Not to mention hangarage and repair facilities in case of emergency landings eg. bird strike.

c) There is a rather hush hush outfit now operating from the old Airmens Mess as we learnt when we got ‘lifted’ by the RAF fuzz for photographing it.( They didn’t erase ’em all tho’) :diablo:

All in all it seemed unlikely that Scampton would close. Remember Scampton closed once before and was re-opened as the Reds base because they were already using it for practise when at Cranwell. So back then it was realised by Top Brass that it made sense to man it permanently.

Ah yes it’s also an MoD filming location. I think it is to be used for the new Dambusters film

Mickey D
Team SDB Scenery for MSFS