Parachute Store

Glad you liked the Google earth view, charliehunt. It was quite a surprise to find it so readily available.

Wyvernfan, your fifth picture has hit the jackpot!!

It shows the demolished parachute store – the tall building arrowed – along with the CO’s Office on the right, and the Armoury Maintenance unit on the left. Between these two buildings, in the background, is the single storey building next to the parachute store. The lower picture, taken last week, shows where the parachute store had been (arrowed) and the same single storey building to the left of centre, taken from a different angle, with one of the Romney (large Nissen) Main Workshops behind it.

On the other side of the road in the foreground, and in front of the buildings, is the now bare concrete apron where the Link Trainer building once stood. This seems to have been a relatively recent demolition.

I think I have identified some of the other buildings in your photos, which mostly appear to be unchanged, but I will have another look when I return to the airfield.

Just what I was hoping for – many thanks indeed.

Wyverfan, I had hoped you might be able to respond as I saw you had posted on this thread earlier. I will have a good look at your photos and compare with mine and hopefully comment further in due course.

T-21, thanks for that reference. Do you know what date the aerial photograph is? There is a Google earth view of 1945 available under ‘historical imagery’ which is remarkably clear.

Quite a bit of interest generated. Any more old photos will be very much welcomed.

Thanks very much AgCat. I have seen these – in fact they were the catalyst for my interest – and I have been in touch with Martin Bull who posted many of them.

What I am now hoping for is some more pictures from the past to see how things have changed. If anybody can provide something from ten or more years ago, then we can try a few more “Then and Now” comparisons. I am planning a return visit to the airfield at some point in the next few months.

The Control Tower (a listed building) now has planning permission for use as a dwelling and workshop, no doubt in the hope to stop it crumbling away.

I have now visited Little Staughton and taken my “Then and Now” photo, which is posted on the Wreckage of Lancaster ED908 thread.

It is apparent that a number of buildings have been demolished in the last few years and I am wondering whether anyone has any photos from about ten years ago (or longer) which might show parts of the airfield as it then was. I have particularly in mind the tall building near the Main Workshops and referred to as the Parachute Store which appears to have been knocked down some years ago, but probably after 1999 or thereabouts?

If anyone has any information or pictures they are happy to share, these would be much appreciated.

This is the unit used for ARI 5153, the H2S navigation system. I don’t immediately recognise the other pieces, but I will have another look.

– – – Updated – – –

I have a diagram of the H2S system, but the Modulator Type 64 is the only one of your pieces which appears on it. The piece with the green coloured screen seems to be the indicator unit, but it is not immediately recognisable as the Type 162 or 163 on my diagram. The other piece has connections for your Modulator Unit Type 64, and also for a Power Unit 529 (my diagram shows a Type 224 or 280), and a Control Unit Type 409 (my diagram shows a Type 218). I can only conclude that you might have a later version of H2S than ARI 5153, but perhaps somebody else has more information?

I see that that the aircraft was being flown by Flt Lt JL Munro of Dam Busters fame. It seems that the aircraft was fairly new and this was a testing flight forced to land in bad weather. The aircraft is alternatively described as KC-T or AJ-T (not to be confused with ED285 AJ-T).

Your best bet might be to try the 617 Sqn Association.