I was on a trip 'norther' to visit someone and so quickly organised a tourist visa for this place on the way. I seem to be unable to go from A to B these days without seeing what I can visit enroute.
It was actually really nice and I generally found the solo visit very enjoyable.
A very strong 50s vibe. It was very light and spacious and a lot bigger on the inside than expected.
If you want to see a 1950s decaying control room, I don't think there are many like this in the UK now.
It was luxury to park right outside and the coming and going in the vicinity made me feel safe from squatting trouble makers.
I drove in and told security I was visiting the nursery on site.
I had a check around the other main building. I'm sure there must be a way but it was rather busy at this front end. I think you'd need to visit out of hours, but then you wouldnt have the nursery excuse and would need to slyly get onto the whole site. I will take another look at a slightly less peak time.
"The site began to the far south of RAF Thurleigh; a WW2 airfield situated to the north. The airfield itself became part of the wider RAE Bedford site and was expanded/upgraded for the flying of post-war aircraft on larger runways. Presumably, the wind tunnel site developed from a dispersed camp for the airfield given its distance from the main site, or was constructed in previously open land. The facility was chosen as an expansion of the work initially carried out at RAE Farnborough, with RAE meaning Royal Aircraft Establishment, renamed to Royal Aerospace Establishment in 1988 and then merging into the Defence Research Agency in 1991. Unlike the RAF, the RAE was a military branch of the Government concerned with innovating aircraft technology, and hence primarily worked in developing and testing new hardware and designs. Prior to WW2, the RAE worked at Farnborough to develop things like ways to land aircraft on carriers, or airships, but after WW2 became concerned largely with jet engines. The Farnborough site expanded with NGTE Pyestock purely for developing turbines and jet engines, whilst RAE Bedford was concerned more-generally with experimental aircraft development."
Cheesy selfies for scale purposes. You could easily interpret the space in the photos as half the size it really is
It was actually really nice and I generally found the solo visit very enjoyable.
A very strong 50s vibe. It was very light and spacious and a lot bigger on the inside than expected.
If you want to see a 1950s decaying control room, I don't think there are many like this in the UK now.
It was luxury to park right outside and the coming and going in the vicinity made me feel safe from squatting trouble makers.
I drove in and told security I was visiting the nursery on site.
I had a check around the other main building. I'm sure there must be a way but it was rather busy at this front end. I think you'd need to visit out of hours, but then you wouldnt have the nursery excuse and would need to slyly get onto the whole site. I will take another look at a slightly less peak time.
"The site began to the far south of RAF Thurleigh; a WW2 airfield situated to the north. The airfield itself became part of the wider RAE Bedford site and was expanded/upgraded for the flying of post-war aircraft on larger runways. Presumably, the wind tunnel site developed from a dispersed camp for the airfield given its distance from the main site, or was constructed in previously open land. The facility was chosen as an expansion of the work initially carried out at RAE Farnborough, with RAE meaning Royal Aircraft Establishment, renamed to Royal Aerospace Establishment in 1988 and then merging into the Defence Research Agency in 1991. Unlike the RAF, the RAE was a military branch of the Government concerned with innovating aircraft technology, and hence primarily worked in developing and testing new hardware and designs. Prior to WW2, the RAE worked at Farnborough to develop things like ways to land aircraft on carriers, or airships, but after WW2 became concerned largely with jet engines. The Farnborough site expanded with NGTE Pyestock purely for developing turbines and jet engines, whilst RAE Bedford was concerned more-generally with experimental aircraft development."
Cheesy selfies for scale purposes. You could easily interpret the space in the photos as half the size it really is
I was in a cramped space and turned after putting down my camera bag. Turned back to find this fella perched 30cm in front of my face. Gave me a fright. Would move, had to sweep it off with the back of my hand
