rae

Heard earlier this week that a company had bought the land and were going to turn it into some sort of open air storage. As I assumed it's days were numbered, I decided to try getting in one last time. Wasn't expecting the thing to be flattened so quickly but yep, another great location and a...

Introduction RAE Bedford has always been on the bucket list for me. Ever since I saw photos back in 2017 it is one I have always wanted to do but never thought I would ever get there or do it successfully, but we finally managed it in the end! I first tried it back in 2019 but couldn’t find an...

So I was meant to do a post on this a few weeks ago but I ended up off in Germany exploring some incredibly cool stuff for a week (probably to emerge from the backlog in half a years time). I seem to have started off a bit of a Bedford craze this summer with my 3x3 post, and whilst it's been...

RAE Bedford RAE Bedford was established in 1946. It was designed to be a hub for aircraft experimental development work. At the time it was described as “the finest research and development establishment outside the United States”. Former RAF Thurleigh was selected as the base for the new...

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...

This place is nothing new so I won't overdo the history. Thanks to a non-forum explorer for alerting me that it was still doable - haven't seen it done in some time. Thought it would be worth a repost both for an update and so I can share my shots! Thought I'd throw the RAF Thurleigh camp in as...

I have always fancied this tower. I do have a thing for any control towers. This one is a bit different that it's not built as your usual airfield ATC tower but for RAE Beford. We had tried this a few years before without much luck, so was glad to complete this tower. The tower here was built in...

A small building which everyone seems to have forgotten about. Seemed like a good idea to take a look. From what I could find this building appears to have been built around 1956 from an image (showing what I assume is to be this building) I found on a document from the Bahg website. It was...

Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford Throughout the late 1930's and early 1940's there was a mass growth and interest in the UK for aircraft development both in commercial and military usage, accelerated by the arms race of the ongoing second world war. Set up as the National Experimental...

History RAE Bedford was a research site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment between 1946 and 1994. It was located near the village of Thurleigh, north of the town of Bedford in England and was the site of aircraft experimental development work. (Shamelessly copied from Wikipedia cos I'm a lazy...

History RAE Bedford was a research site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment between 1946 and 1994. It was located near the village of Thurleigh, north of the town of Bedford in England and was the site of aircraft experimental development work. In the book "A Short Illustrated History of the...

Bit of an old one this, it's not been posted up for a while so maybe it's gone now or locked down. A long while ago I visited the remains of the 8x8 Wind Tunnel Testing Site but for some reason or another we ended up completely missing one of the smaller buildings, namely the 3 x 3 wind tunnel...

History In 1946 the site at Thurleigh was the new base for the second Royal Aircraft Establishment site. The site had several reasonably large wind tunnels, one supersonic and one large subsonic. The supersonic tunnel was dismantled by 2005. RAE was deeply involved in the development of...

RAE Bedford 8x8, 3x3 Windtunnels and RAF Thurleigh Tower - Apr/Dec 15 The Explores The first visit was intended to be a quick recce as there had been nothing from the place for a few years, so naturally assumed it was sealed tight... but bloody hell are we glad we checked the place out...

The former RAF Thurleigh had been built in 1941 as a new RAF Station. Its first use was by No. 160 Squadron, forming on 15 January 1942, equipped with U.S.supplied B-24 Liberator bombers, known by in RAF service as the "Liberator II". 160 Squadron trained and flew operational missions from...