Longest runway in the UK?

[reverserunlocked]

I believe the USA's longest runway is at Edwards AFB in California. Could anyone tell me the name of the longest runway in the UK?. .. .I remember from a long-forgotten school trip that there's a very long old strip somewhere near York, but it's decommisioned now.. .. .Winners get a packet of smarties and a mars bar.

[Unwell_Raptor]

One website puts the new Fairford runway at 1.6 miles. That's about 8500 feet, which it says is okay for a Space Shuttle if needs be.

[rover2701]

I believe the runway at Manston in Kent is about 15000 feet nearly 3 miles

[Dan Winterland]

Manston is only 9026', but was originally 300' wide and was built as an emergency crash facility for damaged returning bombers in WW2. It also had the FIDO system which dispersed fog by burning vast quantities of oil in troughs next to the runway. The tanks can still be seen.. .. .Uk's longest is 27R at Haethrow at 12798'. Longest military is Boscome Down at 10535'.

[Whipping Boy's SATCO]

Fairford used to be 10003ft; I don't know if the resurfacing etc. changed anything.

[PaperTiger]

Machrihanish ?. .Used only by Auroras of course <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" />

[ShyTorque]

The one near York is probably Elvington.. .. .We used it as an RLG from Linton-on-Ouse in the 1970s for BFTS on the Jet Provost; I believe it's 11,000ft long.

[Whipping Boy's SATCO]

Machrihanish - 10000ft

[C Harrison]

I thought the longest in the UK was RAF Finningley near Doncaster S. Yorkshire. .. .And in the USA the Cape Canaveral Skid Strip near the Space Shuttle Launch pads

[Lucifer]

The one at Canaveral I don't think is actually that long: Shuttle seems to have reasonable braking with chutes and brakes.

[PaperTiger]

For the US, the runway at Groom Lake (Area51 / Dreamland) is reputed to be over 20000ft, although not paved for the entire length. But of course it doesn't really exist...

[stagger]

Obviously not relevant to the original question but apparently, the Shuttle landing runway at Kennedy Space Center is "4,572 meters (15,000ft) long and 91.4 meters (300ft) wide" with "305 meters (1000ft) of paved overruns at each end.". .. .This from a NASA website.

[spekesoftly]

Elvington's large apron was mentioned earlier, which reminds of the time it was used for take-off. Sometime in the seventies a Linton based Jet Provost was stranded at Elvington with an engine snag. After the problem was fixed, the Linton-on-Ouse Unit Test Pilot (Flt Lt Dave Bingham?) was despatched to collect the JP, but a strong cross wind precluded a normal runway departure. With no hangars or permanent security staff at Elvington, a delay was not desirable, so it was decided that the JP would take-off diagonally across the apron, and thus into wind. So large is the apron, that 'runway length' was not an issue!. .. .As many may know, Elvington is the home of the Yorkshire Air Museum, and well worth a visit.

[reverserunlocked]

Thank you all. Smarties all round. Anyone want the yucky brown one?

[Lucifer]

Of course I meant it wasn't that long compared to Area 51... OK I was wrong! 300' wide explains why it doesn't look that big when you fly past on Orlando departure.. .. .Speaking of wide runways, Newquay St Mawgan has 300' as well, that has been little used by the Nimrods ans Sea Kings that have been based there in more recent times. Another US creation.

[Dan Winterland]

The main stip at Edwards on the dry lake bed is some 30,000' long.

[Avalon]

Elvington - many happy memories of "day detachments" there from Linton, sitting out in the sunshine like spitfire jocks waiting for the next wave of Hun to appear! And eating cast off chocolates from the nearby factory that one of the firecrew brought in. Anyone see the incident where a visitors's run-in-and-break took out the telephone cable that went from the top of the tower to the crew room?

[phd]

Is Elvington still a diversion landing runway for the Space Shuttle if it has to abhort a launch before reaching stable orbit? I am pretty sure it was at one time, but if a section has been removed is it now too short? Just curious.

[DVR6K]

Well, an addition to the kennedy space centre thingymabob.. .. .Saw on the TV that apparently it´s soooooo flat and soooooo long, it is exactly in line with the curvature of the earth.. .. .Anyone confirm this? Or is it American made-up stuff again? Like all the yanks on the posh bit of the titanic and the silly little irish elves in steerage.

[newswatcher]

Papertiger and Lucifer, you may be interested in this:. .. .<a href="http://home.houston.rr.com/bethland/runway.html" target="_blank">http://home.houston.rr.com/bethland/runway.html </a>. .. .and this:. .. .<a href="http://members.tripod.com/~groom_lake/" target="_blank">http://members.tripod.com/~groom_lake/</a>. .. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" />. . . . <small>[ 20 March 2002, 10:04: Message edited by: newswatcher ]</small>

[Gaza]

Bruntingthorpe is 3000m (9943 feet). It is unlicensed and is used mainly by the motor industry as a proving ground plus the likes of Top Gear. They do offer long-term Aircraft storage and I also remember an ex-Air Frog 747 being flown in there a few years ago for destruction testing. In the wake of Pan Am/Lockerbie the CAA were investigating ways of making cargo containers stronger and the oldgirl was blown up to test the efficiency of new materials in withstanding small explosions.

[ORAC]

I have an old copy of the UK NOTAM for procedures to be followed for a Shuttle diversion. Gravely states that it will not be squawking emergency as no IFF etc. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> . .. .A few years back a B-1 had the wings stuck at full sweep. There were a lot of frantic calls to find a runway available where they could vv fast otherwise they were going to eject over the Bristol Channel. As I remember, I think they eventually went to Germany (Hannover, 10,300ft??)

[Mycroft]

Edwards is a large dry salt lake, and although there are runway markings and instrumentation the who are can be used if necessary; essential for flight testing when problems could require pilots to land anywhere (also rocket-powered a/c land as gliders). I assume Groom Lake has the same characteristics. Bonneville salt flats, used for land speed records, is smoother as it floods annually, depositing a new surface, which like any truly flat surface ie height above sea level is constant (DVR6K please note) follows the curvature of the earth

[loggerhead]

What about the M25? That’s infinite!

[Groundgripper]

Just been reading the April edition of Aircraft Illustrated which has an article on the Air Force Flight Test Centre Museum at Edwards (sounds well worth a visit if you are in the area). The article also mentions that Rogers Dry Lake, next to Edwards, covers an area of 44 square miles and has seven 'marked' runways criss-crossing the clay, the longest being seven and a half miles (39600 feet/12070 meters). . .. .The article quotes Edwards main runway at 15000 feet with a 9000 foot over-run over the lake bed.

[kieranwilliams]

When i was doing some training at bedford about ten years ago, I was told that it was the longest runway in england. Was he lying ?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

The Space Shuttle diverts to Moron AB in Andalucia, Spain. It is about 20 miles East of Seville/60 miles North West of Malaga. The 'upturned wedding cake' airspace available by Notam is truly spectacular in dimension.. .. .Was suprised to find that LHR has the longest runway in UK - you learn something every day.. .. .WWW

[newswatcher]

The official Shuttle TAL runways are:
Ben Guerir, Morocco - 13,720 feet
Yundim, Gambia - 11,811 feet
Moron, Spain - 11,800 feet
Zaragoza - 12,109 feet

In addition, each runway has a useable overrun area of at least 1,000 feet at either end.

The use of Ben Guerir was temporarily suspended after September 11, I am not sure if it is back in service.

[canberra]

i always thought that sculthorpe(egup) had the longest runway in the uk. if i remember rightly its approx 14000 ft long. admittedly its only used for army exercises. it was used by the usaf in the fifties for b45s to fly missions behind the iron curtain, the yanks actually got the raf to fly the missions for them. if anyone doesnt know where it is its on the a140 between kings lynn and cromer.

[gerkin]

Back on the space shuttle theme, the runway on Easter Island was elongated about 10 years ago by NASA, as a reserve landing site for the shuttles. Don't know its dimensions, just that the LanChile 767s which land there barely have to use their speedbrakes, and the taxi back to the terminal, basically the full length of the runway, takes forever.

[paulo]

Hmmm... well, I've just looked at the aerial photos of an airfield at Sculthorpe, and the long one sure is wide, but it ain't longer than Heathrow.

Next!

[under_exposed]

Anybody know the length of Filton ? Looks big on the map.

[Luke341]

Its Campbeltown in Scotland. and thats a FACT.:rolleyes:

[AerBabe]

Does anybody actually know the answer?! ;)
Must admit I thought it was Manston too.
Have flown into Filton, but can't remember how long it is. I know it's just about wide enough to land a C152 with full flap though :D (not that I've tried of course)

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

Answer to what ? Confirm that the longest runway in the UK is LHR's 09L/27R.

[Pom Pax]

I suspect the reason why so many USAF fields in Europe initially had long runways was because the B47 needed them.
Re RB45s, I believe that the a/c used out of Sculthorpe for covert flights over the USSR also involved Canberras flown by RAF crews but painted in USAF colours. Quite why they pretended to be USAF I never worked out. The reason for using them was that the RB47s' ceiling was less than the Mig 17 and their own "Canberras" B57s were doing similar work in the far east.

[teeteringhead]

When Elvington was still active (and had its entire length) it was nominated as a diversion for Concorde test flying. Late 60s I guess .....

[Boss Raptor]

Heathrow, 13,500ft and maybe Boscombe Down which is pretty big but dont remember what exactly...

Just seen your figures above SB2946 - so I was right :rolleyes:

[essouira]

speedbird 2946 - you've obviously done your research here - don't suppose you know the length of the old bedford runway by any chance ? thanks

[spekesoftly]

Bedford RW 27/09 - 3,200m/10,500ft

Taken from RAF En Route Supplement (BINA) 27/10/83

[Big Tudor]

Ah, good old RAF Thurleigh. Was once a contender for London's 4th aiport, till lil ole Stansted came along. Believed to have been the station that Glenn Miller took off from on his final, fatal mission, although that fact is open for some debate.

[Agaricus bisporus]

What about that very shady place between Aberdeen and Dundee - roughly inland from Montrose if memory serves - was/is it called RAF Edsel?

Stories of bat winged night arrivals rife there in the early '80s well before bat winged things admitted to.

Runway is huge, I've seen it from the air, but like the elephant's cage at RAF Chicksands appears on no map that I've ever seen.

Anyone know about this?

[essouira]

thanks spekesoftly - it's good to know that my old imc instructor wasn't lying all those years ago - he was just exagerating a bit when it came to the exact length of the bedford runway - it wasn't really second only to heathrow

by the way speedbird 2946, how come you are so on the case re runway lengths ?

[willbav8r]

45 mins SE of my humble abode is Castle AFB. (California). Old B52 base. Great museum too.

Non-towered, with 11,000+ feet of runway. Plenty of fun for us chaps in little bug smashers.

Seem to remember getting 7 takeoffs and landings in a 152 one calm day! With full flaps and a headwind, just might be able to land the thing in the width of the rwy.

Does make one feel slightly small and insignificant though.....

In the plane that is.

[FlyboyUK]

What about Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire (home of the Vulcan XH558). Ex B52 base, not sure how long it is, but certainly a long one!

[spekesoftly]

Bruntingthorpe's longest Runway was 10,200ft, when it was built in the late '50s, to accommodate USAF B-47s and RB-66Bs.

According to an earlier post on this thread, the runway is now a little shorter.

[scroggs]

I'm amazed at the lengths UK runways have apparently reached in rumour and legend!

As Speedbird 2946 says, the longest runway now or ever in UK is London Heathrow's 27R. Bedford was the longest 'military' (OK, RAe) airfield. Speedbird's figures are correct. There has never been a runway of 14000ft in UK! The large number of runways extended in the 1950s as part of the USAF Korean War/Cold War military build up were nearly all taken out to figures between 9000ft and 10000ft. Finningley was just under 9000, Elvington was 9800. It was, I believe, restored to its full length when the RAF resurfaced the airfield in 1989/90. Sculthorpe was unusual in that its extension to 9000ft (not 14000) came between 1944 and 48.

Manston, along with Woodbridge in Suffolk and Carnaby in East Yorkshire, was reconstructed in 1943 to have a single runway of 9000ft by 750ft width (not 300) expressly for emergency landings by returning heavy bombers. If you look closely now, you'll see that the northern parallel taxiway sits on the same hard surface as the currently marked 200ft wide runway. The old runway forms the foundation for both.

St Mawgan (the eastern extension and replacement for Trebelzue airfield) is 9000ft by 300ft; I believe this is the widest runway in current use in the UK.

RAF Macrihanish (now known as Campletown) is 10000ft by 150ft, as reconstructed in 1960-62.

I believe the longest runway never used in the UK was at RAF Chelveston, in Northamptonshire (now the site of a radio relay station). Chelveston was extended to somewhere around 3600m (10800ft) in the 1950s, but no aircraft ever used it (although there are rumours of one crash landing). The runway was broken up in 1977.

[spekesoftly]

Would that be RAF Machrihanish - now known as Campbeltown? ;)

[newswatcher]

Sorry to quibble with your findings Scroggs, but several sites, including Yorkshire Air Museum's own site, have Elvington at 1.92 miles, which is a little over 10,100 feet.

This figure is also quoted on Maurice Greenaway's aviation site, but then the same page also mentions a length of 3,018 meters, which is about 9,900 feet. :confused: :confused:

Keith Lindsay has some useful info on his site, for current airfields:

http://www.lindsay.flyer.co.uk/airfield.htm

just select the country from left margin.

Some of the longest runways in the world are in South America. La Paz boasts a runway of just over 13,100 feet(c4000m). The local joke is that the runway length is the same as the altitude!

Embraer have just completed a runway of length 16,404feet(5,000m) at their facility at Gaviao Peixoto.:eek:

[canberra]

there was a caution put in the remarks for sculthorpe in the raf bina. this said pilots were to exercise caution when landing because of the runway length you could get optical illusions. someone mentioned having a bina from the 80's. what does it give as sculthorpes runway length?

[spekesoftly]

Sculthorpe - 24/06 - 9,009ft/2,746m

'Caution. Optical illusion on final approach caused by concrete and asphalt runway,may cause unduly long landings.'

I read that to mean that the contrasting (light/dark) runway surface caused the optical illusion, not the runway length itself.

[John (Gary) Cooper]

Some interesting 'maximum' lengths of runway in the UK, how about this one in the Maldives it was three miles long in 1960, unfortunately the island is only 1.25 miles long, the pilot 'landed' his Hastings in the sea as many eye witnesses have recorded that there was a refraction of the runway at sea!

Read about it on
http://splashdown2.tripod.com
and for photos:
http://community.webshots.com/user/hastingsgan

[scroggs]

My own memory of Gan is that the runway was about 7000ft long, and it certainly fitted within the physical boundaries of the island! The relatively short runway was a bit limiting for many of the types that staged through in the 1970s, prior to its closure in 1976.
As for Elvington, I don't have an RAF BINA from before it closed (93), which would show the accurate ASDA - i.e. the length of concrete including stopways - but the documentation I do have shows 9800ft. While some may measure runways in statute miles, the RAF never has. I did much of my own early Jet Provost T3A flying from Elvington. The facilities there at the time were extremely sparse!

[Background Noise]

I see Scroggs getting a little aroused here and no wonder. The en-route supps have it well documented from accurate surveys etc. Folklore seems to have got the better of some of the others.

Another interesting point is the lose use of the term 'miles'. In flying speak - certainly at the professional level, we mean nautical miles (6080 feet) rather than road type statute miles (5280 feet). So its not surprising that distances can become rather arbitrary.

Scroggs' 9,800 ft at Elvington, for instance, could become 1.86 statute miles which, if taken as NMs would be 11,308 ft .... etc.

Whoops, putting coloured pens down now - sorry.

[spekesoftly]

Elvington ASDA - taken from RAF BINA 1983:-

RWY 08 ASDA 8,492ft / 2,592m

RWY 26 ASDA 7,194ft / 2,195m

[scroggs]

spekesoftly Thanks for that. Unfortunately, it doesn't help a lot because in those days the RAF maintained only a 6000ft portion of the runway, roughly centrally within the overall length. The ASDAs quoted in 1983 would be from the displaced thresholds. I think that the resurfacing in 1989 restored the usable runway to its full length, but perhaps someone else can confirm that. I have airborne photographs (taken by me!) of the of the runway being worked on in 1989, but it's not clear whether the whole length was involved. I'll stick with 9800ft until someone can authoritatively show otherwise!

PS, measurement of the 1987 OS 50 thou shows the runway to be 3000m, near enough, which is close enough to 9800ft for me!

[EGGD]

Edwards AFB is supposedly 8 miles long, I think that wins.. in the USA, as mentioned, and its in the guiness book of records as well.

In the UK its obviously at LHR, in fact not many long runways in the UK really. MAN's new runway is a reasonable length too.

[spekesoftly]

scroggs - sorry the 'BINA' info wasn't more helpful. Having also flown circuits at 'Elvers' in a JP (Mk3 in my day ;) ) - I've no reason to doubt the original runway length that you mention. Interesting to learn that the 1989 resurfacing may have been done 'full length', and I'm intrigued by the thinking behind that decision, especially with imminent RAF withdrawal pending!! (par for the course, do I hear you say!!).

In an earlier post, you mention that the original Runway width at some (FIDO equipped?) RAF Airfields, such as Manston, was 750ft, and not 300ft. Does the figure of 750ft (five times wider :eek: than most runways!) refer to the actual width of the usable concrete/asphalt surface, or could it in fact have been the distance between the FIDO equipment, running parallel to each side of the runway?

[chiglet]

SORRY
As I have posted before on similar threads
The two longest runways in the UK are Liverpool Bay, and The Solent. Jet Fighters and "rather" Large Transports spring to mind:p
We aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[Bigears]

Agaricus bisporus ,
Looks like Edzell is on the map, and runway lengths about a mile long. Wouldn't expect any shady flying there, as the locals would have noticed!
Map of Edzell airfield (http://uk2.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=364000&Y=770000&width=500&height=300&client=public&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&scale=25000&down.x=20&down.y=16)

See also Info (http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/06airfields/UK/uks.htm) under 'Forfar'

[scroggs]

spekesoftly

No, those runways were really 750ft wide! At Manston you can still see the original concrete under and around the built-up modern surfaces of the current runway and parallel taxiway. I've never been into Woodbridge, so can't comment on what remained of the WW2 runway. Carnaby still stands out like the proverbial doggie's danglies from the air, even though much of it is covered by factories and car parks.

Yes, I was a JP3 man as well ('77/'78), and flew from Elvington many times.

[anengineer]

A mate argues it's Filton. I say complete rubbish. But... googling "longest runway in europe" gives several different results, including Macrihanish, Zhukovsy, Istres, Zaragosa, Finningley, Barajas, Campbeltown, Fairford, (I gave up at this point !).
So, what is the longest runway in Europe ?

[scroggs]

Well, it's none of the UK ones among those! They're all 10,000ft or less (and Machrihanish and Campbeltown are the same place). Heathrow's 9L/27R is 12,800ft. There may be longer runways outside UK.

Scroggs

[ZeBedie]

Of course there may be 15 000' of concrete and pubilshed distances of 8 000', so what's published is not much of a guide, in this context.

[scroggs]

Not true. All in-use runways will have published figures that include the actual length of concrete. Those no longer in use will still have archive statistics available. On the rare occasion that the figures are duifficult to establish (not a problem in UK), measuring from Google Earth or accurate 50 thou (or larger scale) maps will provide the answer.

[scroggs]

Longest UK military runway is Boscombe Down, 3212m (10,500ft). Longest constructed was RAF Chelveston at 11,000ft. It was open for only three years (1959-62).

Scroggs

[aeroconejo]

I believe that the longest runway in the EU is at Madrid Barajas......over 4000m.....it's high and very hot in summertime......so performance is a major factor here.

For those that have mentioned Filton.....it is wide (90m I think).....but not that long at around 2400m.

aero

[Treetopflyer]

You are probably right about Madrid-Barajas when it comes to TORA... 18R/36L is 4350m long...

However LFMI (Istres le Tubé) has a 4958m ASDA/TODA... :eek:

[Dan Winterland]

Beat me to it! I was about to metion Istres, which is the French equivalent to Boscome. It lines up with the local valley so that when the mistral blows, you have a headwind. Last time I landed there, we had a 60 knot headwind which made all that concrete rather superfluous.

And as for Sculthorpe - the RB45s operating from Sculthorpe carried RAF markings and registrations. These flights were as a result of John F Kennedy's statement to congress that the CIA and USAF flights over the USSR would be curtailed. The solution - get someone else to do them!

The Sculthorpe optical illusion was quite marked. Like a lot of military runways, the first 1000' at each end was concrete with the rest being tarmac. This gave an illusion of sorts but was increased by the undulations at Sculthorpe. I don't remember it being particularly long, but I was in a Victor. All runways seemed short when landing the Victor!

[chevvron]

Sculthorpe has/had a basically concrete runway with a strip down the middle surfaced with tarmac, that's where the optical illusion comes from.

[wawkrk]

All is revealed here: http://worldaerodata.com/countries/

[SLFguy]

Why/how the heck did Gambia need/get a 11k + runway..?:confused:

edit; google is my friend:)

[Dark Star]

Banjul Gambia is I believe a diversion airfield for the space shuttle in the event of aborted blast off as are others in the region such as Sal in Cape Verde.

[lez]

Finningley is 9,491ft 2,893 metres long by 60 metres wide same has east midlands airport

[old,not bold]

Bentwaters is closed but still there, not least because it was resurfaced just as it was being closed by MoD in the mid-1990's. As I recall from driving up and down many times, and flying from it once it it was 3,000m between thresholds, but had another 300m or so full strength/width concrete at each end. It was 45-50m wide, I think. Perhaps someone can correct that recollection.

The abandoned tower still had the met. for the last days flying on the board. Eerie, as was the underground nuclear attack-proof command HQ, with the door flapping open in the wind.