Modern Structures on RAF Stations
 

Laughingly I was reading Forces news on their visit to the Wyton's PAthfinder hub

https://www.forces.net/news/take-tri...MVe2ihohs6O9Pw

https://www.forces.net/sites/default...T%20MOD%20.jpg

and looking over the years looked at development of Lossie's Poseidon Strategic Facility

https://des.mod.uk/wp-content/upload...-0539-0012.jpg

and of course MArham's F-35B facility...

I guess we are catching up with our transatlantic and antipodean allies with modern aesthic pleasing structures.

Mind you i dug up a copy of Superbase 20: Baden Sollingen published in 1991 and interesting to see the then CAF 1st Air Division lair at CFB Baden-Sollingen maintenance hangar is almost whiter than white, (as with their US counterparts)

https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4A&oe=65CA77AA


https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...6Q&oe=65CA6733
https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...6g&oe=65CB3953

even back then, but from what I remember of going to RAF bases as a either CCF or ATC cadet at the time, dont recall our C type hangars inside being as bright...

cheers

...or as empty!
RAF Hangars were mostly WW2 historic structures built for Lancasters, at best, and were always stacked full of minor and major servicing. The hangar above looks like it was built to take the largest CAF aircraft possible - but is used for F18s. A bit like Timmy's Hangar at MPA - with a FIGAS plane in a corner.

Isn't Timmy's hangar a bit empty because it was built to house a Tri* and the Voyager doesn't fit in there?

Correct! A point I made many years ago when comparing the offerings of TTSC and AirTanker.

The 767K would have fitted, the Voyager does not.

what part does not fit?

Would have loved to work in such a nice environment instead of the cold draughty hangars I worked in at Middleton and Leconfield !

I assume modern structures on RAF airfields does not refer to married quarters.....

When we arrived at the former GAF Leck, we were impressed to be ushered into a warm, immaculate hangar with a pristine shiny floor and advised it was the Avionics facility.

We were embarrassed when the very bent Gnat duly dripped its fluid contents over the floor...no idea how long the stains remained for, probably until the base closed.

XS103 looked very sad indeed when I saw it later at RAF Valley!

I hope that they are nicely heated. I remember Base Hangar at Brize when the Tristar did its bounce. It was in nose first for months over winter, with a staging cover. That meant that the doors had to stay open and as they were linked to the hangar heating, it was bloody freezing.

In about 2010 they constructed a new building at Kinloss, housing the new MRA4 simulator - so I presume this counts as a "modern" structure?

Within a couple of years the roof had blown off (peeled back) in a storm that had no real impact on the "old" structures.

I'm not sure what condition these modern structures will be in 50 years from now, but personally I have my doubts. Not that I'll be around to see...

The reason the old WW2 Hangar doors were double skinned was they used to be filled with sand to absorb blast when those nasty Germans dropped bombs on the place, these look like they are built to a cost and not to any protection standard.

Protection from who/what?

Also the damage to the roof of the £70million A400M hangar at Brize during 2022's Storm Eunice.

if you use that argument, why build HAS?

We don't, when was the last HAS built, 1984?

Wind and rain for starters!

The hangars at RAF Chivenor when it reopened were modern, light, quiet and bright inside - the engineers couldn't believe their luck!

Chatting with a Luftwaffe chum on the way to lunch at their old dining area, we passed the workers who were digging the foundations for the new air terminal...

"If you'd only asked, we could have helped out with a few more craters", I told him, "....oh and if you find anything marked 'Air Ministry Property 1942', it's OK - we won't it back!"
"Ja! But at least we won't have to keep painting the new one every year!" he replied.
"Why do you have to do that"
"Ach, because when the paint fades, an eagle holding something in its claws appears!"

It seems that the original Nazi emblem had been etched into the brickwork and could only be removed by demolition, so they had to paint over it!

Decrepit old C Types
 

It definitely something I've noticed especially on disused ex mil airfields that the C Type hangars have zero maintenance but don't seem to have much damage after bad storms.

The end bits.