Qualla: RAF Gaydon https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Gaydon https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon RAF Gaydon: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. On 1 March 1954 the Royal Air Force re-opened a wartime training airfield in south Warwickshire to a much larger purpose. The Cold War was ten years old; the British government had decided it needed an independent nuclear deterrent; and the new four-engine jet bombers that would carry that deterrent - the Valiant, the Victor, the Vulcan - needed runways longer and stronger than anything wartime Britain had built. RAF Gaydon's new main runway was laid that year, with Operational Readiness Platforms and a Gaydon-type hangar tall enough and wide enough to swallow a V-bomber whole. On 1 January 1955, No. 138 Squadron RAF reformed at Gaydon as the first operational unit of the V-force, equipped with the nuclear-capable Vickers Valiant B.1. The British nuclear deterrent had a postcode.

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Image: Harvey Milligan | CC0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Gaydon: Wartime Beginnings https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. Gaydon opened in July 1942 as a satellite to RAF Chipping Warden, immediately occupied by No. 12 Operational Training Unit flying Vickers Wellingtons and Avro Ansons. The pupils were a mixed group of Allied aircrews - mainly Canadians, Czechs and New Zealanders - and the training...

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Image: Harvey Milligan | CC0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-wartime-beginnings.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Gaydon: 138 Squadron and the Valiant https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. The Vickers Valiant was the first of the three V-bombers to enter service - less famous than the delta-winged Vulcan that came after it, but the type that made the British strategic nuclear deterrent operational. The aircraft were painted gloss anti-flash white to reflect the hea...

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Image: Harvey Milligan | CC0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-138-squadron-and-the-valiant.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Gaydon: From Bombers to Navigators https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. When Flying Training Command took over the airfield, No. 2 Air Navigation School arrived flying the Vickers Varsity, a piston-engined twin used to train back-seat navigation crews. They flew Varsities at Gaydon for nearly five years before moving to RAF Finningley in May 1970, by...

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Image: Harvey Milligan | CC0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-from-bombers-to-navigators.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Gaydon: What Closed and What Continued https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. In 1974 the 43 Officers' Married Quarters were still in use, occupied by US Air Force personnel and their families serving at other British bases - a small American footprint inside a British airfield in the last weeks of its military life. The Airmen's Married Quarters were used...

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]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-what-closed-and-what-continued.mp3 0:06 5 full RAF Gaydon: The Runway Becomes a Test Track https://qualla.com/raf-gaydon/ Photo credit Harvey Milligan, CC0. In 1978 British Leyland bought the airfield. The transformation that followed was both unusual and somehow inevitable: a runway laid in the early 1950s to launch V-bombers became a test track for British motor cars. The main runway was widened and re-marked into a four-lane strai...

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Image: Harvey Milligan | CC0

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/b/raf-gaydon-wp/gcqb-raf-gaydon-the-runway-becomes-a-test-track.mp3 0:06 6 full