Report - RAF North Luffenham - June 18

[Bikin Glynn]

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RAF North Luffenham was a Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, 1940 - 1998. It is near to the villages of Edith Weston (edy weedy to us locals) and North Luffenham.

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The station was built as a training airfield, opening in 1940. It was later taken over by 5 Group of Bomber Command as a heavy bomber base, and was expanded by the building of concrete runways later in the war. In 1951, the station was transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force to become the temporary home of 1 Fighter Wing, the first Canadian NATO base in Europe.

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From 1959 to 1963, North Luffenham was home to PGM-17 Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles. From 1965 to 1997 the Joint Services Language School was based here. A plaque to commemorate the Language School was unveiled in 2005 by Air Commodore Bruce Benstead, the last Station Commander at RAF North Luffenham.
Recruits from RAF Swinderby competed their fieldcraft training at this base in the late 80s and early 90s.

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The station was taken over by the British Army and renamed St George’s Barracks, it still remains an active base.

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The old airfield used for training still has a a few interesting bits left. firstly there is what I believe is a 1962 Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 Serial wa383 Register XP395 used by Royal Air Force RAF.

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Also there is a rather nice Bloodhound System mobile radar and control caravan.

Thats all I can squeeze in, thanks for looking
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[HughieD]

Great set there. Bit different innit? Like the radar truck.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Thanks mate, I must go back sometime to see what's left now

 

[horrgakx]

Superb!

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Superb!

Thanks, its a relatively uncovered place so thought it may have more interest tbh

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Nice to see this. I used to mess around here as a kid when visiting a friend in the village! Used to be a few more vehicles hanging around.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Nice to see this. I used to mess around here as a kid when visiting a friend in the village! Used to be a few more vehicles hanging around.

Yeah I think the jets had gone by the time I visited. I remember the main barracks used to have armed gaurds on every lookout, Im just waiting for that to close now.