RAF Newmarket

RAF Newmarket was a Royal Air Force station located near Newmarket, Suffolk, England, near the border with Cambridgeshire. In the 1950s - 1960s a new camp appeared under the name RAF Newmarket on the Dullingham Road.This was a Communications Unit under Signals Command and contained Eastern Communications Centre (Commcen Eastern) and North Eastern Communications Centre (Commcen North East) and staffed mainly by National Service and h Regular Personnel.The administration of this camp was from RAF Waterbeach. This was a relay station handling signals traffic between all RAF bases in the Eastern and North Eastern areas

History

DG202/G, the prototype Gloster Meteor tested at RAF Newmarket, on display at the Royal Air Force Museum London in 2011.

The RAF station was actually a grass-strip on Newmarket's Rowley Mile Racecourse.[1] The grass strip is still used by light aircraft today.

Squadrons

Units

The following units were also here at some point:[9]

  • No. 3 Group Communications Flight RAF
  • No. 3 Group Training Flight RAF
  • No. 22 Heavy Glider Maintenance Section RAF
  • No. 54 Maintenance Unit RAF
  • No. 1483 (Bomber) Gunnery Flight RAF
  • No. 1483 (Target Towing) Flight RAF
  • No. 1483 Target Towing and Gunnery Flight RAF
  • No. 1504 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF
  • No. 1688 (Bomber) Defence Training Flight RAF
  • Air Bomber Training Flight RAF (No. 3 Group)
  • Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment RAF
  • Night Vision Training School RAF
  • Radar Training Flight RAF

Early Jet Aircraft

In July and August 1942, ground running and taxiing tests were carried out at RAF Newmarket with a prototype of the new Gloster Meteor jet fighter.[10]

2000 aircraft crash

In June 2000, a Piper Seneca plane crashed on take off, killing the pilot and injuring jockeys Ray Cochrane and Frankie Dettori. The plane was headed for Goodwood in Sussex. Cochrane received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in 2002 for saving Dettori's life.

See also

References

Citiations

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to RAF Newmarket.

Coordinates: 52°14′17″N 0°21′58″E / 52.238°N 0.366°E / 52.238; 0.366

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.