5 mile runway in the UK

I believe it was for the Brabazon Airliner, work did commence on land in the area between the two sites, details are I think in Action Stations.

Up Tiddley Up Tup…………….

Here is the map taken from ‘Wings over Thurleigh’

That’s pretty conclusive then, superb illustration of how close they are.
I really wish I had paid more attention to the old airfields when I worked at Cardington (virtually gone) and my 8 years at Henlow (lots of the older buildings now gone).

…………… As for Thurleigh and Little Staughton not being aligned, it’s not far off and Thurleigh is a cracking landmark for finding Little Staughton – fly along Thurleigh’s runway heading and LS will turn up very shortly dead ahead..

Google earth can really come into its own for pics. like this.
As is said , a picture’s worth a thousand words, Thurleigh in the distance

The story is true, and yes, the existing underpass was put there so that a taxi track could pass over it. This was a 1950s project to create a UK version of Edwards, if you like, i.e. a major national aerospace research and test centre. There are still many people around (including staff at the university I work for), who were involved or are familiar with the project.

As with so many similar ideas, it fell foul of a spending cut-back.

There is a very interesting map showing the proposed layout dated August 1946 in Mike Dobson’s fine book ‘Wings over Thurleigh’ published in 2001 (ISBN 0-9541594-0-3)

I’ve had a look through Action Stations 6.
It says there was considerable discussion about connecting Thurleigh and Little Staughton with a very long runway. It also says there was a move afoot to build a huge Maintenance area at Twinwood Farm and connect it to Thurleigh with a wide taxiway. This was supposedly for the Brabazon.

Looks like Vicky 10’s quotes may have come indirectly from Action Stations.

I’ve heard a similar story of a very long runway between Kemble and Aston Down (It too would have been 5 miles).
As the MOD had really lost any long term plan for Aston Down much past 1960 and sold it by about 1980 it would not have been Space Shuttle related.
My own speculation on this and the Thurleigh 5 mile long runways is a possible connection with the Avro 730 bomber development. This was a large supersonic bomber which, in about the 1956 timeframe, was under full scale development. Therefore it would be quite reasonable to assume that the MOD would also have been laying down plans for it’s basing and support infrastructure. If one looks at the 730’s design it would have had a very fast take off speed, was pretty heavy at take off ( about 20 %+ more than a Vulcan), and only had a single 8 wheeled Main Landing Gear (Vulcan had two 8 wheeled MLG’s). The really efficient carbon brakes would take another 15 – 20 years to develop so it had to stop using steel brakes…. just look at the massive steel brake installation on the TU144. Considering it also had a bucket of instant sunshine sling underneath it, I think it may have required 5 miles to safely reject a take off in an emergency.

Just been Googling! Found this several year old quote on a forum.

Thurleigh – I used to live nearby. A couple of miles to the east is Little Staughton. At some time there was a plan to join the two airfields together to create the longest runway in the country – that would have been a sight! If you drive around the area, at one point a road has been sunk into a cutting with concrete bases in the middle to support a runway overhead that would have led to Twinwoods.

And another.

When Thurleigh was initially being developed as a research centre after the war, the original plan included a 5-mile runway extending out to Little Staughton and with its maintenance area close to Twinwoods Farm. Defence cuts put a stop to all that, but just South of Thurleigh a narrow country lane still suddenly splits into two carriageways as it passes through a dip where a taxiway to Twinwoods was due to have passed across!

And just found a .pdf link to WWII airfields of Bedfordshire. WWII Airfields of Bedfordshire

Cheers for the link Noel, just about to sort it myself!

Not sure where I got the information from to be honest, it may have been Action Stations, but living in Bedfordshire it was well known about.

There seems to be a little disparity between whether the runway was to run to Twinwood Farm, which is clearly not aligned with Thurleigh’s main, or Little Staughton.

I had heard that the dip in the road was an underpass for the proposed taxi-way to a maintenence area at Twinwood Farm, my picture doesn’t really show too well how the country road suddenly changes course and dips quite sharply.

I’ve never heard of Yardley Chase before – was it a suggested location for a 3rd London airport before Stanstead got the go ahead? Can’t think of why they might need a 5 mile runway though!

I recall some talk in 1990 of UPS, Fedex or similiar thinking of using Thurleigh as a European hub after the MoD pulled out but this never materialised.

What I remember of Thurleigh in 1990 was that it was an airfield full of character – one hangar being full of RAE Canberras – and oh how it only seems like yesterday. Also recall the RAF using Thurleigh for large practice formations in preparation for the 50th BoB flypast over BP and Abingdon – back in the days when the RAF could muster 100+ aircraft.

A friend of mine mentions this on his photo website, link below. Hes RAF so may have more info on it. He can be contacted via his website.
Five mile long runway

Was this the Yardley Chase airport proposal or am I thinking of something different??

Hi,

The only thing I can think of that may need a 5 mile runway would be for the Shuttle in the case of an emergency.

Alex

Me too.
I wonder if it might be in the relevant Action Stations? I’ll have a look later, when I’m nearer to them.

I can’t add substance to it, but it is certainly one I’ve heard before.

Moggy