Qualla: RAF Machrihanish https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: RAF Machrihanish https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish RAF Machrihanish: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ The runway is just over ten thousand feet long. It runs almost north-south across a flat coastal plain at the tip of the Kintyre peninsula, with the Atlantic on one side and the Mull of Kintyre on the other. For perspective: that is longer than most Caribbean international airports and only six hundred feet shorter than Heathrow's longest. A 747 could land here. A Space Shuttle could have - the airfield was designated as a transoceanic abort site for the Shuttle from 1981 until the program ended. What was a 747-grade runway doing on a stretch of Argyll coastline where the nearest town has 4,500 people?

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Machrihanish: The Forward Edge https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ Look at a map of NATO's North Atlantic strategy during the Cold War and the answer becomes obvious. Machrihanish sat on the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, the choke point through which Soviet submarines would have to pass to reach the open Atlantic. From here, anti-submarine aircraft ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-the-forward-edge.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Machrihanish: The SEALs https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ The most distinctive Cold War tenants at Machrihanish were the US Navy SEALs of Naval Special Warfare Group 2. They had a complex of low buildings on the southwest side of the airfield - offices, an armoury, a parachute drying tower, a 25-metre indoor firing range, and a hangar d...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-the-seals.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Machrihanish: Aurora and the Question Mark https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ From the early 1990s, Machrihanish acquired a small reputation in aviation enthusiast circles for a different reason. Witnesses claimed to have heard unusual aircraft noises overhead and to have seen contrails behaving strangely. The rumours coalesced into a name - Aurora, an all...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-aurora-and-the-question-mark.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Machrihanish: One Pound https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ After 1995 the airfield sat under what the MOD called "care and maintenance" - kept usable, mowed, secured, but largely empty. In March 1996 Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd took out a license to operate a portion of the field as Campbeltown Airport, with Loganair flights to Gl...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-one-pound.mp3 0:06 5 full RAF Machrihanish: Now https://qualla.com/raf-machrihanish/ Today the airfield is split between two functions. Campbeltown Airport (EGEC) handles Loganair's twice-daily Glasgow service from a small terminal that opened in the 1990s. The rest of the site is a business park managed by MACC, with the former SEAL buildings repurposed for what...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/g/raf-machrihanish-wp/gcgg-raf-machrihanish-now.mp3 0:06 6 full