Report - NGTE Pyestock, Farnborough - June/July/August 2012

raisinwing · Sep 10, 2012

Visited with GAJ, JasperB, LeedsExplorer, Phantom Bish and Skelderz

For over fifty years, Pyestock was host to the development and testing of gas turbine engines. From the 1950s through to the 1970s, it was the largest facility of its type in Europe (if not the world), and the design, experimentation and testing at Pyestock helped to usher in the jet age. From running up Concorde's Olympus jet engines in a simulated supersonic conditions through to the endurance checking of every gas turbine installed in the ships of the Royal Navy, Pyestock's credentials were extremely impressive.

As gas turbine research matured and computer simulations took over, Pyestock was gradually run down and now stands unused. The structures on the site are considered to be of national, if not international, importance. But due to their extremely specialised nature, no alternative uses have been put forward, and the whole site is destined to be demolished and replaced by a supermarket distribution centre.

This is a summary of 3 separate visits over the summer:

The first on a red hot day in June with JasperB and Skelderz where we spent about 3 hours looking for a way in, gave up and then found a way in. We visited the Power Station on this visit prior to getting busted by security and making a run for the fence.
The second was a miserable day in July with JasperB and Phantom Bish, it didn't take us long to get into the site and we visited the Main Stores and Main Workshop, then again we got busted by security and were escorted out of the front gate.
The third visit was in August with JasperB, LeedsExplorer and GAJ. Due to me and JasperB turning up 7 hours late we missed the other guys who had been there most of the day. We visited the Air House, Cell 4 and Cell 3 before setting up camp for the night on the roof of the Power Station, where I preceded to make a hash of cooking us some soup. Nevertheless, was a truly memorable night and something I'd like to do again one day.

Thanks to everyone who visited with us, some really great days!

Power Station