Qualla: RAF Wyton https://qualla.com/raf-wyton 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/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Wyton https://qualla.com/raf-wyton RAF Wyton: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-wyton/ Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. Within ninety minutes of Britain declaring war on Germany in September 1939, RAF Wyton had launched its first sortie. The aircraft that lifted off that morning from this flat Huntingdonshire field were Bristol Blenheims of No 139 Squadron, headed for a reconnaissance run over the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven. They returned with the first aerial photographs of enemy territory taken by the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. Wyton has been quietly doing the kind of work that does not make headlines for more than a century now. The runway opened in 1916 for the Royal Flying Corps. The runway closed for fast jets in the mid-1990s. The intelligence work continues, and has only grown more central to British defence.

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/gcrc-raf-wyton-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Wyton: Pathfinders in the Dark https://qualla.com/raf-wyton/ Photo credit Rob Schleiffert from Holland, CC BY-SA 2.0. In August 1942 RAF Bomber Command established a new and controversial formation at Wyton: No 8 (Pathfinder) Group, under Group Captain Donald Bennett. The Pathfinders flew ahead of the main bomber stream, marking targets with coloured flares so that the heavier waves of Lancaster...

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Image: Rob Schleiffert from Holland | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/gcrc-raf-wyton-pathfinders-in-the-dark.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Wyton: The Canberra Years https://qualla.com/raf-wyton/ Photo credit Public domain. After the war Wyton found a new role. From 1953 the station hosted English Electric Canberras configured for photo-reconnaissance - the PR.3 and PR.7 variants, capable of high-altitude imagery missions that mattered enormously during the Cold War. For four decades the station was...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/gcrc-raf-wyton-the-canberra-years.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Wyton: The Jewel in the Crown https://qualla.com/raf-wyton/ Photo credit N Jordison, CC0. The Telegraph called it the jewel in the crown of British defence intelligence. The Joint Forces Intelligence Group moved here from Feltham in 2013, bringing with it the collection of signals, geospatial, imagery and measurement-and-signature intelligence under one roof. The £180...

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Image: N Jordison | CC0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/gcrc-raf-wyton-the-jewel-in-the-crown.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Wyton: What Remains of the Runway https://qualla.com/raf-wyton/ Photo credit Rob Schleiffert from Holland, CC BY-SA 2.0. Light aircraft still flew from Wyton until 2015, when the Cambridge and London University Air Squadrons moved their training operations to RAF Wittering. The decision in 2013 to relocate all flying units was driven by the cost of maintaining a runway no one really needed - the an...

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Image: Rob Schleiffert from Holland | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/c/raf-wyton-wp/gcrc-raf-wyton-what-remains-of-the-runway.mp3 0:06 5 full