Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Bedford - April 2011

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nelly

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Starting in 1946, construction work began on the airfield to turn the site into what became known as the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford. The runway was extended in the post-war period to accommodate the Bristol Brabazon aircraft (which required a very long runway) that ultimately never went into production. One local road was dropped into a cutting so that it would not sit above the level of the runway.

It was the site of experimental aircraft development and was once described as “the finest research and development establishment outside the U.S.A."

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This building is a "Kinetheodolite tower" (Cine Camera Tower) there was a further tower located elsewhere on the field. Two beams were projected up onto a taking off aircraft which would then lock the camera's on and follow it around ( hence the observatory dome)while trials were carried out over the field! the data being fed to computers for trajectory analysis
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A trip down memory lane here. There was and old rover abandoned near one of the buildings with these inside, I remember it being my job to lick and stick these when my Mum had been shopping ;)
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Superb report, hadn't realised that there was anything like that site near here.
 
Nelly you covered the site well.
Was great to get back out there and shame about Mr 7 ancle
Quite a little maze of a place and one where you always see somthing you missed.
Its suprising how the things you thought in exploring wouldnt interest kinda grow on you ;)
I spy with my little "Roc post Eye ";) hahaha
I have a secret lol :question:

Night crawler, do you know whats worse regarding those stamps!
I can still taste them :sick:

SK / Neil :)
 
Nelly you covered the site well.
Was great to get back out there and shame about Mr 7 ancle
Quite a little maze of a place and one where you always see somthing you missed.
Its suprising how the things you thought in exploring wouldnt interest kinda grow on you ;)
I spy with my little "Roc post Eye ";) hahaha
I have a secret lol :question:

Night crawler, do you know whats worse regarding those stamps!
I can still taste them :sick:

SK / Neil :)

Lol, ROC posts eh?? I'd love to get down one of them!!!

This place wins with the peely paint!!!
 
Aggghh, forgot to credit Skeleton Key for the photo with the Official Secrets Act Sign.
Some little bastard had gone at it with a paint can and SK had one from his previous explore

Thanks mate

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Great stuff there Nelly, nice to see that some of the electrics are still in place and not in a scrapyard somewhere. Haven't seen Green shield stamps in a long long time, god I feel old now lol
 
Nelly ,will be round for tea latter about 18.30 seeing as i m now yer boy ;)
For that i think you should post your ROC Post pics .
i know theres alot of people who would enjoy them and srtongly feel you should share as thats what the forums all about :p


SK / Neill ,Yer buddy :)
 
You impatient bstrds :( nice work lads...guess I will have to finish this one solo only problem will be where to put my crutches while I take photo's...good news is I will be able to fend of any guard dogs I could run into :)
 
You impatient bstrds :( nice work lads...guess I will have to finish this one solo only problem will be where to put my crutches while I take photo's...good news is I will be able to fend of any guard dogs I could run into :)

Don't you go worrying about dogs and security. You just enjoy your holiday mate and leave the exploring to us mate :)
 
What is that aircraft in the first shot as it appears to be a French Mirage of some sort.

I'll be honest mate I got it from Google images, it was titled "Hunting 126 XN714 Test Flight from RAE Bedford"

Wiki says......................................

The Hunting H.126 was an English experimental aircraft designed and built by Hunting Aircraft in order to test the concept of blown flaps, or as they were known in Britain, "jet flaps". Only one aircraft was built, being flown in a series of one-hundred test flights at the Royal Aircraft Establishment's Aerodynamics Flight at RAE Bedford. It was then sent to the United States for wind tunnel testing by NASA, and eventually made its way to the museum at RAF Cosford.
 
What is that aircraft in the first shot as it appears to be a French Mirage of some sort.

A big thank you, the photo that I thought was a Hunting H126 turned out to be a mirage that had probably never been near Bedford in its life, all changed now ;)
 
Nice one Nelly !! Really informative and interesting post with the best piccies i've seen of the place.Will have to get my fat cockney bum up there !! :mrgreen:
 

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