Everything about Raf Newton totally explained
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RAF Newton was a
Royal Air Force station, 7 miles east of
Nottingham,
England. It was used briefly as a bomber base and then as a flying training school during
World War II.
Built on the site of a pre-war civil airfield, Newton was assigned to
No 1 Group in June
1940, when Nos
103 and
150 squadrons returned from France. These squadrons were re-equipped with
Vickers Wellingtons in October 1940 but moved on to more suitable bomber airfields in July
1941.
Newton then became a training base, and for the next five years No. 16
(Polish) Service Flying Training School provided basic and advanced training for Polish airmen serving with the RAF, using
RAF Tollerton as a satellite landing ground.
The station became the headquarters of
No 12 Group,
Fighter Command from
1946 until
1958, when
Technical Training Command took over the station for electronic fitters courses.
Later the station became the home of the RAF School of Education, who moved from
RAF Upwood in
1972, and the
RAF Police Training School, who moved from
RAF Debden in
1973 bringing their
gate guardian - a
Hawker Hunter F1, WT694 (now at
Caernarfon Air World) - with them. Both of these units transferred to
RAF Halton in the
1990s.
The station had also became the home of the newly-formed Nottingham University College Air Squadron in 1941, providing newly-trained pilots for the RAF. During the 1960s Newton was home to
Air Experience Flights of
Chipmunk aircraft which were used by local squadrons of the
Air Training Corps. The East Midlands
University Air Squadron continued flying at Newton, with
Bulldog aircraft, until moving its flying activities to
RAF Cranwell in
2001. In the latter years, civilian-operated
Slingsby Fireflies were also based at Newton for basic military training on behalf of RAF Cranwell.
Today the site is a private industrial estate and the buildings are being converted into offices and storage space. The old
control tower still stands and is being renovated into offices; the grass airfield has reverted to agriculture.
The abandoned houses on the base were used to film scenes from the film
This is England. It has also been used for the BBC series
Robot Wars.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Raf Newton'.
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