MOD Woodbridge

[Skyfan]

Hey folks, just a quick one. Was on a short breakin Suffolk and very close to the above site. Anyone know what they actually do? It's a REME (air) site so i assume it's refits etc but just curious as i saw the odd thing buzzing around, mainly rotary.

[Mad-Air]

check out Secret Bases • WWW.SECRET-BASES.CO.UK © 2010 (http://www.secret-bases.co.uk)

Near to Wattisham (AAC). Was USAF til quite a few yrs ago though......:ok:

[Capot]

Last time I looked it was used as a training area for Apaches and others from Wattisham, who would use a low-level corridor to the Woodbridge/Bentwaters training area and back for noise reasons.

The local and precious second-homers from London objected 10 years ago, with much middle-class wailing, outright lying and gnashing of teeth to the re-opening of Bentwaters as a largely maintenance base and employment locus with a few, very few schedule flights.

It was and remains one of life's sweetest ironies that the consequent refusal of consent for Bentwaters allowed the whole area of the two runways to be taken over for high intensity training by some of the noisiest aircraft around.

But I haven't been there for some years and perhaps that's all changed.

[Skyfan]

Thanks for the responses folks. Been a bit busy so late responding :-)
Certainly seemed to be a pair of Apache's that we saw so that would tally nicely. Difficult to be certain as they were not hanging about....

[REF]

MoD Woodbridge is no longer an active airfield. The army are there and it is now ROCK Barracks, they re-built the tech site and it is fenced off from the main airfield site.

The airfield occasionally gets used for training by the Apaches and the HAS's remain.

Photos can be found on my website = www.airfields.fotopic.net/woodbridge (www.airfields.fotopic.net/woodbridge)

Another place for infor is = HERE (http://airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?t=1058)

Couple of my photos from last year, loads more on my site;

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/Flyer719/Woodbridge/20090411Woodbridge184-1.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/Flyer719/Woodbridge/20090531Woodbridge25-2.jpg

[agl-amsl]

Could anyone out there confirm or deny whether the United States still own the runway at Woodbridge. I can remember being told in the 90s that woodbridge could be used to land the space shuttle should there be a problem with it, and that was the reason that it was fenced off?
Was not sure at the time whether my leg was been pullled!

[Ten West]

I seem to recall that the divert field for the shuttle was in Spain? Could be wrong though. :confused:

No, a quick Google reveals that I'm right. For once!

Trans-Oceanic Abort Landing sites:

UK: Fairford.
Spain: Moron de la Frontera (Moron)

Space Shuttle abort modes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_abort_modes#United_Kingdom)

In the event of an emergency deorbit that would bring the Orbiter down in an area not within range of a designated emergency landing site, the Orbiter is theoretically capable of landing on any paved runway that is at least 3 km (1.9 mi) long, which includes the majority of large commercial airports. (In practice, a US military airfield would probably be preferred for reasons of security arrangements and minimizing the disruption of commercial air traffic.)

[REF]

Could anyone out there confirm or deny whether the United States still own the runway at Woodbridge. I can remember being told in the 90s that woodbridge could be used to land the space shuttle should there be a problem with it, and that was the reason that it was fenced off?
Was not sure at the time whether my leg was been pullled!

Negative, as I mentioned in my post above it is no longer active. It is owned by the MoD. The runway is in great condition (I drove down it twice last year!), however the shrubs and trees are too tall for most things to land there. It is used regularly byt the army for Apache exercise though.

I seem to recall that the divert field for the shuttle was in Spain? Could be wrong though.

As far as I am aware there is nowhere in the UK now that is any designated divert field for the Shuttle.

[agl-amsl]

Many thanks, Ref and Ten West. As I suspected good old military banter.

[chevvron]

I think Shuttle Diverts were designated in case of SRB failure soon after liftoff, hence the one in Spain; another was Banjul in the Gambia and I believe NASA or the US Govt funded its modification eg parking and infrastructure. The runway was already quite long, and with low traffic it was ideal as the trajectory to inject into orbit from Canaveral was close by.
All this means that in spite of rumours, nowhere in the UK was suitable.

[shobakker]

Ah, the memories, remember spending an interesting day with the A10's at Bentwaters as an air cadet courtesy of the US Airforce...they looked after us fantastically.

[con-pilot]

REF, thank you for the photos. I took my first flying lessons in the Aero Club at RAF Woodbridge back in 1959 at the age of twelve. The aircraft that I took my first lessons in were a Piper J-3 Cub and a Piper Tri-Pacer. The Aero Club also had an L-20 Beaver that my father used to fly us all over Europe on holidays.

I spend many a happy hour washing and cleaning the aircraft that belonged to the Aero Club. The Aero Club served both Woodbridge and Bentwaters.

Thanks again. :ok:

[Ten West]

Well, it'll all be sadly academic soon anyway, with the impending retirement of the last orbiters. :{

Although that quote was from a Wikipedia search, Fairford sounds likely. I think from memory the only runway longer than that would have been the A&AEE at Boscombe Down (Showing my age here! It's probably "Bombs-R-Us" or "Cannon Warehouse" now with all this outsourcing of once-proud institutions to civilian outfits, but I digress...) :rolleyes:

Interesting discussion though. Thanks chaps. :ok:

[obnoxious]

Woodbridge, Mildenhall etc are all owned by Mod UK, (RAF Mildenhall,
RAF Lakenheath....). The bases are operated as soveriegn US bases and are leased, so I am told.

[TEEEJ]

Some RAF Fairford - Shuttle links

Fairford Airmen prepare for shuttle launch (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123076617)

Factsheets : 420th Air Base Group, RAF Fairford, United Kingdom (http://www.501csw.usafe.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=14711)

NASA's Space Shuttle (http://www.fairfordbase.org.uk/space_shuttle.htm)

TJ

[alanpowell]

There seems to be some confusion about RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk England. Formerly called RAF Sutton Heath it was the site of a "crash 'drome" during WW2.
It is still the site of one of the longest and widest runways in Europe and had a crude but effective fog dispersal system to enable aircraft to land in the event that their aerodrome was fog bound. High octane aviation spirit was pumped down pipes alongside the runway. The pipes were equipped with jets and the fuel ignited. The resulting super-heated air dispersed fog just sufficiently to enable aircraft to make a precarious landing.
It was responsible for saving thousands of RAF and USAF aircrew from crippled aircraft or when their home base was shut down due to fog.
One night in January 1945 950 aircrew were served with breakfast because they had been unable to land on their fog-bound airfields!