Qualla: RAF Jurby Head https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: RAF Jurby Head https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head RAF Jurby Head: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head/ If you walk the beach below Jurby on the Isle of Man's north-west coast after a winter storm, you can sometimes still find pieces of practice bombs. RAF Jurby Head was an air weapons range, not an airfield. It existed from 1939 to 1993 to give aircrew somewhere to drop ordnance, fire cannon, and rehearse the things you cannot rehearse over inhabited land. The range stretched 8 miles along the shoreline from Bluepoint to Ballabane and 6 miles out to sea. Vulcan bombers practised low-level runs here before the Falklands War. USAF F-111s screamed in from East Anglia during the Cold War. The range closed in 1993 with eight military and two civilian personnel, the smallest RAF station in the British Isles when its number was called.

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/v/raf-jurby-head-wp/gcsv-raf-jurby-head-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Jurby Head: An Empty Place for Loud Things https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head/ The story begins not at the range but at the field. In 1937, as part of the RAF Expansion Scheme that prepared Britain for the war it could see coming, the Air Ministry approached the Manx Government about an Aircraft Armament Training Camp in the sparsely populated parish of Jur...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/v/raf-jurby-head-wp/gcsv-raf-jurby-head-an-empty-place-for-loud-things.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Jurby Head: After the War, A New Cold One https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head/ When World War II ended, the RAF began the slow contraction that all British armed services went through. On 17 September 1946, No. 5 Air Navigation School moved out of RAF Jurby and went to RAF Topcliffe in Yorkshire. No. 11 Air Gunnery School followed, transferring out from nei...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/v/raf-jurby-head-wp/gcsv-raf-jurby-head-after-the-war-a-new-cold-one.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Jurby Head: Vulcans, USAF, and Operation Black Buck https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head/ In 1982 the range had one of its most consequential moments. The Avro Vulcan bombers of the RAF Waddington Wing - aircraft from Nos 44, 50, and 101 Squadrons - flew practice sorties over Jurby Head as part of their preparation for Operation Black Buck. Those were the impossibly l...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/v/raf-jurby-head-wp/gcsv-raf-jurby-head-vulcans-usaf-and-operation-black-buck.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Jurby Head: What the Tide Brings Back https://qualla.com/raf-jurby-head/ By the late 1980s, the Isle of Man branch of the Celtic League had become a vocal opponent of the range's continued use. The protests added pressure to forces already pulling in the same direction: the end of the Cold War, the reduction of USAF operations in Europe, the gradual o...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/v/raf-jurby-head-wp/gcsv-raf-jurby-head-what-the-tide-brings-back.mp3 0:06 5 full