I once went on a tour of the disused underground bits at RAF Rudloe Manor.
HUGE number of tunnels, an old WW1/2 underground ammo storage site that apparently could hold the whole of NATO’s war stock if still in use today (according to the bloke), 3 railway stations (all covered in half-moon dents from dropped shells), a turntable and one absolutely blooming massive WW2 aircraft factory!

Couldn’t go into the factory as the roof is unsafe in places, but did have a peer inside – lots of rusty stuff for as far as my torch could see. Sadly, all of the pristine crated merlins and lancaster spares must have been down the far end in the shadows 🙂

Anyone know if they do a forces discount? Never have for museum admission but are the airshows different?

Almost ALL of the PR films used to be kept at the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC) at RAF Brampton, in a Film Library known to all as the “tin mine”.

It used to be a fantastic archive and the JARIC in house magazine used to carry articles by one of the civilian anlysts who would pull a film tin at random during his lunch break and write up anything interesting he found.

Unfortunately, as is usual nowadays, it was decided this was somehow too expensive and everything was shipped out to IIRC Keel University. A lot of the film was unfortunately destroyed before the move as I recall they could not take the whole archive (which ran to several million images).

A junior officer at the time got in a bit of bother for destroying a large number of films that “were just empty beaches” and turned out to be all the pre-invasion recce for D-day:eek:

This was in 2000-2001ish so I assume it is now at Keel and available for searching.

Still in regular use i’m afraid – I bravely leaped out of her myself only the other month.

The classroom we used before the exercise had a display on the wall with several photos of her being lowered into the field by a SAR Sea King.

Lightning Lady,

I can see your point about lack of support from the Squadron, but a lot is happening ‘behind the scenes’. Some hard work by the resident Royal Engineer and a team of overdressed volunteers (flying suits and shovels don’t mix) mean the plinth for the aircraft is finished and drying ready for the big move.
Plans for raising funds are coming along nicely – just need to mug the Corgi bloke:)

Just wondering how you are planning do get her across the airfield when the time comes? – the tyres looked pretty flat and knackered last time I was over there. Do you guys have spares or is it just a case of pumping them up?
I was also wondering how several tons of Lighting is going to move over the grass to the plinth:eek: Big ropes and lots of blokes?:D