Originally Posted by
DennisTheMenace
Aircraft on site:
May not be a full list, but it's what I recall seeing.
12 Canberras.
BAC 1-11
1 Tornado
Sea King helicopter
Lynx helicopter
Gazelle (I think it was ours, Farnborough might have had one too)
1 Harrier (with digital computer inside the engine, visible through the vectored thrust nozzles)
HS 125
Lightening - not sure if that was ours or not.
Farnborough certainly did have a Gazelle, an RAF specification one as opposed to the 656 Sqdn AAC ones which departed in about 1982 and which were quite crude by comparison.
We also had a couple of Sea Kings until one 'broke its back' after a heavy landing from a simulated throttle computer freeze and a couple of Lynx flying trials plus one of the prototypes in storage. I'm sure Bedford had more than one BAC111; Farnborough only had the one.
Many of the Bedford Canberras found their way to storage at Farnborough after Bedford airfield closed. It was a frequent occurence at weekends after DPA flying moved out for someone to come in to fly out a Canberra which we in ATC didn't even know was there, usually to places like Bruntingthorpe for preservation.
Bedford also had an ex BUA VC10 which was rendered un-flyable with a 'bent' fuselage; don't know what happened to that.
On my first visit to Bedford in 1974, soon after being posted to Farnborough, the Hunting 126 jet flap research aircraft was being taken away on the back of a lorry.