Originally Posted by
Harold77
Think you'll find its the DSA worshippers that deem they have longest runway in the country because it was designated space shuttle emergency landing site.
Even then that’s only according to Wikipedia. The only official abort landing site cited in any NASA documents was RAF Fairford. Just a wild rumour. Based on the specifications as outlined by NASA, the Shuttle required 12000ft of paved runway for an emergency landing, Fairford was in fact the exception to that rule being only 10,000ft. But I believe this is because of a lack of other suitable options in the U.K. and probably because they had a US presence on site who were trained to deal with such an eventuality.
RAF Finningley was never considered as a Space Shuttle emergency landing site.