spekesoftly

No, those runways were really 750ft wide! At Manston you can still see the original concrete under and around the built-up modern surfaces of the current runway and parallel taxiway. I've never been into Woodbridge, so can't comment on what remained of the WW2 runway. Carnaby still stands out like the proverbial doggie's danglies from the air, even though much of it is covered by factories and car parks.

Yes, I was a JP3 man as well ('77/'78), and flew from Elvington many times.

What's the longest runway in Europe ?
 

A mate argues it's Filton. I say complete rubbish. But... googling "longest runway in europe" gives several different results, including Macrihanish, Zhukovsy, Istres, Zaragosa, Finningley, Barajas, Campbeltown, Fairford, (I gave up at this point !).
So, what is the longest runway in Europe ?

Well, it's none of the UK ones among those! They're all 10,000ft or less (and Machrihanish and Campbeltown are the same place). Heathrow's 9L/27R is 12,800ft. There may be longer runways outside UK.

Scroggs

Of course there may be 15 000' of concrete and pubilshed distances of 8 000', so what's published is not much of a guide, in this context.

Not true. All in-use runways will have published figures that include the actual length of concrete. Those no longer in use will still have archive statistics available. On the rare occasion that the figures are duifficult to establish (not a problem in UK), measuring from Google Earth or accurate 50 thou (or larger scale) maps will provide the answer.

Longest UK military runway is Boscombe Down, 3212m (10,500ft). Longest constructed was RAF Chelveston at 11,000ft. It was open for only three years (1959-62).

Scroggs

I believe that the longest runway in the EU is at Madrid Barajas......over 4000m.....it's high and very hot in summertime......so performance is a major factor here.

For those that have mentioned Filton.....it is wide (90m I think).....but not that long at around 2400m.

aero

You are probably right about Madrid-Barajas when it comes to TORA... 18R/36L is 4350m long...

However LFMI (Istres le Tubé) has a 4958m ASDA/TODA... :eek:

Beat me to it! I was about to metion Istres, which is the French equivalent to Boscome. It lines up with the local valley so that when the mistral blows, you have a headwind. Last time I landed there, we had a 60 knot headwind which made all that concrete rather superfluous.

And as for Sculthorpe - the RB45s operating from Sculthorpe carried RAF markings and registrations. These flights were as a result of John F Kennedy's statement to congress that the CIA and USAF flights over the USSR would be curtailed. The solution - get someone else to do them!

The Sculthorpe optical illusion was quite marked. Like a lot of military runways, the first 1000' at each end was concrete with the rest being tarmac. This gave an illusion of sorts but was increased by the undulations at Sculthorpe. I don't remember it being particularly long, but I was in a Victor. All runways seemed short when landing the Victor!

Sculthorpe has/had a basically concrete runway with a strip down the middle surfaced with tarmac, that's where the optical illusion comes from.

All is revealed here: http://worldaerodata.com/countries/

Why/how the heck did Gambia need/get a 11k + runway..?:confused:

edit; google is my friend:)

Banjul Gambia is I believe a diversion airfield for the space shuttle in the event of aborted blast off as are others in the region such as Sal in Cape Verde.

Finningley is 9,491ft 2,893 metres long by 60 metres wide same has east midlands airport

Bentwaters is closed but still there, not least because it was resurfaced just as it was being closed by MoD in the mid-1990's. As I recall from driving up and down many times, and flying from it once it it was 3,000m between thresholds, but had another 300m or so full strength/width concrete at each end. It was 45-50m wide, I think. Perhaps someone can correct that recollection.

The abandoned tower still had the met. for the last days flying on the board. Eerie, as was the underground nuclear attack-proof command HQ, with the door flapping open in the wind.