Breighton
Note: This map shows the location of the present airfield, which is situated in the SW corner of the WW2 aerodrome.
BREIGHTON: Military aerodrome, now civil aerodrome
Note: All pictures by the author, in June 2015, unless specified.
Military user: RAF Bomber Command 4 Group
78 Sqdn (Handley Page Halifaxs later Avro Lancasters)
460 (RAAF) Sqdn (Avro Lancasters)
Operated by: 1990/2000 to -: The Real Aeroplane Company
Location: W of B1228, 6 nm ENE of Selby
Period of operation: 1942 to 1946 military. Civil ? to present day
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runways: WW2: 08/26 1828x46 hard 17/35 1280x46 hard
04/22 1280x46 hard
1990: 11R/29L 575x9 hard 11L/29R 575x30 grass
2000: 11/29 575x30 grass (alongside part of previous taxiway?)
Helipad: Situated S of and near W end of runway 11/29
(In 2015 located closer to the control tower)
NOTES:
Getting to grips with statistics in WW2 is a complicated business at best. For example in August 1944 1,266 Bomber Command aircrew were killed and 249 made prisoner. This compares to 1,792 killed and 464 in January of that year. On the other hand in 1944/45 the entire Nazi ‘terror’ campaign using V1 and V2 rockets did not exceed 3,700 tons of high explosives, (albeit mainly aimed at London), whereas – by comparison the combined RAF and USAAF forces dropped some 8,000 tons in one 24 hour period on enemy territory.
Note: This picture, taken by Mr A Chalkley, was scanned from the August/September edition of Popular Flying magazine.
THE VPAC FLY-IN
On the 20th to 21st May, the Vintage Piper Aircraft Club held a Fly-In at BREIGHTON. It is always a delight to attend one of these, and many similar events, celebrating the fact that so many generous and enthusiastic people are dedicated to keeping classic aircraft not only airworthy, but available for the rest of us to see.
A PERSONAL MEMORY
In April 2007 I was given the job of moving the remains, which was just the fuselage, of the Somers-Kendal SK.1, G-AOBG, from BREIGHTON to NYMPSFIELD (GLOUCESTERSHIRE). See my listing for NYMPSFIELD for more of this story involving the potential restoration of this unique aircraft. It is well worth a look on Google to learn more about this very interesting aircraft.
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