Airfield near Weybridge
 

Passed this place on the train today. Looked on Google Earth and the satellite picture revealed a VC10, Caravelle, Hunter and a couple of others.
Coordinates for this on Google Earth :- 51*21'16.33" N 0*28'00.44" W.
Anyone got any ideas???

It's Brooklands.

www.brooklandsmuseum.com/

Brooklands was the Home of Vickers and then BAC. Notable contributions to military aviation TSR2 and the VC10 and many others. The Concorde nose was built there as was the VC10 and BAC 1-11. Have a look on google earth for nearby Wisley airfield (now the Ockham hold) from where the moving map and Decca nav was trialed. Did Wisley have a military history?
Brooklands was a small airfield so getting a VC10 in there must have taken great skill. So if theres anyone out there that achieved such a task let us know how it was done.

The VC10 at Brooklands - A40AB - was flown in during the 1980s. A former colleague of mine who lived at the time in the undershoot was at home when it 'arrived'. They had to lop a few trees near the threshold. He told me that it was VERY low on arrival and was obviously pretty light, though if you go on board now and see all the panelling etc all that interior must weigh quite a bit!

I don't think that with the further serious erosion into the runway length available that any more a/c movements by air will be possible. Super museum, well worth a visit (or 2).

Apparently a lot of a/c built at Brooklands during and after the war were flown out to Wisley for fitting out etc. This airfield is a great unused aviation resource but the locals are absolutely against any kind of disturbance to their peace & quiet (never mind the 6-lane highway thundering past...)

Cheres,
TheOddOne

Didn't the VC10 at Brooklands have a serious structural failure to its undercarriage a while back?

Also, haven't they now been moved off of the main airfield site (across a temporary bridge) to the main museum side as the airfield is being developed on?

Sorry, it's still the birthplace of modern motor racing to me. The first permanent road circuit in the world!

Wisley had a pseudo-military history, as it handled aircraft ssuch as the VC10 and Valiant, which couldn't operate very comfortably out of Brooklands.
However, it would be wrong to sugest that the VC10 needs acres of runway -it was designed to have a very respectable short field capability.
Brooklands... never mind racing cars, what about Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines... good ol' Terry Thomas!

I can't resist commenting on the notion that one of the most significant contributions to aerospace made by Vickers was the TSR2; in actual fact, it was the involvement of Vickers (after EE was effectively forced to merge with them by the stupid government) that contributed to the spiraling cost and eventual cancellation of the entire TSR2 project. If Vickers had kept their sticky fingers off it, the TSR2 (which was essentially an EE design in the first place) would probably have survived.

On the other hand, Vickers did produce what was undoubtedly the best (or at least the most practical) of the V-Bomber designs, and produced the magnificent, but grossly under-rated, Varsity!

Tim
I learn something new every day. I didn't know that TSR2 was an EE design. Did Mr Petter have anything to do with it?
Not wishing to digress but did Wisley make any contribution to the protection of London buring the blitz? Or was it solely Vicker's airfield?
By the way has PC forced the name change of the Black Boys pub nearby?

As far as I know, Wisley was only ever used by Vickers - I don't think any military units were ever based there.

The TSR2 was very much an EE project (albeit under other names) but I don't think Petter had anything to do with it (at least as far as I know offhand). Vickers only got involved after the merger, and gradually took on more and more of the project until the whole programme became an endless saga of committee meetings to discuss which company produced which bit, causing the project to become hideously expensive. I don't think anyone ever quite worked out how the TSR2 wasn't built at Salmesbury or Warton in the first place, but cynics would say that it was all about big "southern" companies believing that they knew better than "backward northerners"... But as we all know, the TSR2 story is a sorry tale no matter how you look at it!

RE:AIRFIELD NEAR WEYBRIDGE
 

Carevelle ?? Where was Your train ??..

But seriously... Brooklands Aviation started in 1908 with A.V.Roe and carried on with the likes of Sopwith, Hawkers, Vickers, BAC, BAe. etc....

Alcock and Brown's transatlantic Vickers Vimy was built there, The first Hawker Hurricane flew from there, all the VC-10's were built and did there 1st flight's from there, Vanguard's - all of them!, some 1-11's,...
I could go on and on .....! Oh.. and major chunk's of Concorde !!!

I am a Volunteer there and help maintain and preserve the Aircraft especialy our BAC 1-11 G-ASYD the test and Development aircraft.

Sadly there is no runway left as already pointed out, the airfield was never owned by the museum and is now being developed. The VC-10 flew in in 1987, the 1-11 in 1994 on the 500m left and so did the Vanguard in 1996.

Cheer's

P.S the google system is well out of date!!.. how many varsity's can You count !!.

In his defence, KennyR's aircraft (or AFV for that matter) recognition skills were never that great. Anything more puzzling than another Gazelle he'd pass over the cockpit to his Aircrewman.

:E

He's forgiven !!

He was closer than the people that read the sign then board the aircraft and say "Isn't this a Trident?" !!.. The normal response is "Go outside and count the engines and then think of the word TRIdent " But this sadly is only said in our thought's!!..

The VC-10's and 1-11's during the production years had no real problem getting in and out of brooklands as long as they were empty.. I have seen a couple on VC-10 land and a few 1-11's and even A40-AB arriving in 1987 stopped with plenty of room. The Runway was still full length then but in the early 90's a road was built across it and that left us with the 500m to get the 1-11 and Vanguard in...

Cheer's

P.S the google system is well out of date!!.. how many varsity's can You count !!.[/QUOTE]

Holy Cow! If you can count more than one Varsity (in the museum), then Google must be out of date by about forty years - as (unless I'm seriously mistaken) that would be the very latest that any other Varsities were at Brooklands! In fact fifty years woud be pushing-it?

How many Varisties? More than one Vanguard as well I think; I'd say Brooklands is made up of two different images, taken some time apart, which have been merged together by Google - between the two, those ever helpful Brooklands folk moved their aeroplanes around! :p

RE: Airfield near Weybridge
 

Treadigraph,

Yep.. 2 Varsity's and a couple of shadow Vanguard's plus the real one!!..

And if You remove the square'ish white box You would get a suprise!!.. Lurking underneath is... Concorde 202 G-BBDG...!!

I think we've confused Google enough so have stopped moving the aircraft around (for the time being!!)..

Cheer's

What would be better a quiet Biz jet airfield or an incinerator plant?

Well it did take a V1, so you could say it made a contribution later on in the war

The aerial picture on Windows Local Live is different (http://local.live.com/ find it on the road map then click "aerial"). Is that one more up to date than Google?

My Action Stations Vol.8 tells me that Wisley was discovered by accident by Mutt Summers (Vickers Armstrong test pilot) who had to make a forced landing and "found an open space behind the woodland that fringed the A3 London to Portsmouth road and which was only three miles from from the Vickers Armstrong factory at Weybridge".

"Two or three years later the site was surveyed and work was started to develop it into a relief airfield for the nearby factory. Wisley came into use in 1943 as a grass airfield and was used for the the remainder of the war".

It apparently closed in 1973 by which time it had sprouted a 7,500 ft runway.

The runway at Wisley is still visible, but in case you're tempted to try a landing there, it has no less than three sets of ARMCO barriers across it deliniating public rights of way.