Qualla: RAF Valley https://qualla.com/raf-valley en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Valley https://qualla.com/raf-valley RAF Valley: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-valley/ Photo credit Neil Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0. If you become a fast-jet pilot in any branch of the British armed forces - Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm, Army Air Corps - you will at some point land at this airfield on the western edge of Anglesey. The runway 13/31 here is two and a half kilometres of concrete laid out at the foot of the holy mountain Mynydd Twr, with the Irish Sea breaking just beyond the western threshold. Two-thirds of British fast-jet training happens here: ab-initio courses on the Beechcraft Texan T.1, then advanced flying on the BAE Hawk T.2 with No. 4 Flying Training School. Generations of Typhoon, F-35 and Harrier pilots learned the basics of pulling Gs and shooting low here first.

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Image: Neil Smith | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/gcky-raf-valley-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Valley: 1941: A Hurried Beginning https://qualla.com/raf-valley/ Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The field opened on 1 February 1941 as a Fighter Sector Station under No. 9 Group RAF, with the unglamorous task of covering England's industrial northwest and Irish Sea shipping. The first detachments were Hawker Hurricanes of No. 312 Squadron - Czechoslovak airmen who had fled ...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/gcky-raf-valley-1941-a-hurried-beginning.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Valley: The Atlantic Ferry https://qualla.com/raf-valley/ Photo credit Craig Sunter from Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0. From June 1943, RAF Valley became the British end of the USAAF Atlantic ferry route. American bombers crossing the ocean - B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, C-47 Skytrains, C-54 Skymasters - landed here before fanning out across Europe. The numbers became extraordinary. On...

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Image: Craig Sunter from Manchester, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/gcky-raf-valley-the-atlantic-ferry.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Valley: Jets, and a Prince https://qualla.com/raf-valley/ Photo credit Craig Sunter from Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0. Valley reopened in April 1951 as No. 202 Advanced Flying School, training fighter pilots on de Havilland Vampires and Gloster Meteors. The school became No. 7 FTS in 1954, then No. 4 FTS in 1960 - and No. 4 FTS is still there. Folland Gnats arrived in 1962 and gave way to the BAE...

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Image: Craig Sunter from Manchester, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/gcky-raf-valley-jets-and-a-prince.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Valley: A Working Base https://qualla.com/raf-valley/ Photo credit Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0. Valley today is a busy training establishment. No. 4 FTS flies the Hawk T.2; No. 72 Squadron, which stood up at Valley on 28 November 2019, flies the Beechcraft Texan T.1 in the basic flying training role with a fleet of ten aircraft. No. 202 Squadron operates three Airbus Jupite...

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Image: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-valley-wp/gcky-raf-valley-a-working-base.mp3 0:06 5 full