Doncaster airport

[Donnywolf]

Good to know thanks

[Sprotyrover]

I assume that the National Police Airservice has a right to operate, I read somewhere that they built a hangar and have four fixed wing Aircraft bases there. I doubt that they will be going anywhere until Peel find them a new home and pay out millions in compensation.
Unless of course the Police used a bunch of thickest to organise their contract. Which I strongly doubt!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Given the strategic importance of the runway (one of very few in Europe that is 3km long and can therefore take the very heaviest planes) I'd be amazed if there wasn't some Govt control over digging up the runway.

Then again, gas storage...

[i_ateallthepies]

Exactly, BST.

[auckleyflyer]

Common misconception not even close to being longest in UK nevermind Europe. Was in the 60s but not now.

[Sprotyrover]

The UAE Consortium are intriguing,Must have vast financial resources.not fazed about, TUI and Whizz gone, must have had assurances from The Region and Local council on whatever their development entails!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Common misconception not even close to being longest in UK nevermind Europe. Was in the 60s but not now.

Is that right? Did Finningley get shortened or were other, longer ones built?

[Filo]

11th longest runway in the Country

https://www.bigorre.org/aero/ranking/long_gb/en

[Donnywolf]

Wow ... I've fallen for that too. Always believed we would see A380s touching down " as there are no other runways long enough to take them"

[BobG]

Well damn me!

Thank you Filo. That is a most helpful link. Living where I do I have spent over 30 years believing the local folk lore that the runway at Fairford was used as an emergency landing ground for the space shuttles because it is the longest runway in Europe. Clearly, it ain't! A space shuttle has been here though. There's a photo of it in the local pub. Interesting airfield nevertheless. The first time Concorde ever took off it landed here. It stayed here for the months and months of subsequent flight testing. Laurie Lee wrote an article about it after being invited up for a flight. Some of the Arnhem flights took off from Fairford too. And, of course, we regularly witness flights of U2's setting off to spy on people, squadrons of B52's setting off to bomb people  and even Air Force 1 bringing a certain President to lean on people. We get the Stealth fighters and bombers turning up from time to time too. That bomber is the weirdest thing you will ever see.

BobG

[Sprotyrover]

It won't be landing a Leeds Bradford, even if it was still flying

[Donnywolf]

BobG

I watched Rovers v Oxford one time then went to visit mate near Stroud** for weekend

B 52s were at Fairford so  I went for a look. It was during Iraq war at the time
and I just had to see them.

I went round and round then said there's nothing here , what a b****r

I then was hit by extreme remorse as I thought   here I am disappointed not to see one while the poor people they were visiting were getting the benefit of a visit from them. I felt guilty

At that point one taxied out . Ffs I'd never seen anything like it either before or since

** Kings Stanley ?

[ravenrover]

Well damn me!

Thank you Filo. That is a most helpful link. Living where I do I have spent over 30 years believing the local folk lore that the runway at Fairford was used as an emergency landing ground for the space shuttles because it is the longest runway in Europe. Clearly, it ain't! A space shuttle has been here though. There's a photo of it in the local pub. Interesting airfield nevertheless. The first time Concorde ever took off it landed here. It stayed here for the months and months of subsequent flight testing. Laurie Lee wrote an article about it after being invited up for a flight. Some of the Arnhem flights took off from Fairford too. And, of course, we regularly witness flights of U2's setting off to spy on people, squadrons of B52's setting off to bomb people  and even Air Force 1 bringing a certain President to lean on people. We get the Stealth fighters and bombers turning up from time to time too. That bomber is the weirdest thing you will ever see.

BobG

Only went to Finningly Air Show once, a wt foggy day. Concorde was scheduled to make a touchdown. Over the speakers came "Concorde is arriving in 5 mins" heads craned towards the sound of incoming aircraft, out of the fog came the white streamlined shape of Concorde landing gear down.  In it came not slowing much wheels touched the ground a cloud of smoke from the tyres and up it went  and off again. It had touched down!

[auckleyflyer]

Tell you what as well, I work at Newquay airport worked at Donny for its first 12yrs. Dispite what the website says Newquay is longer than Donny's! on its main cat111 end it has displaced threshold making it smaller, going the cat1 way it's actually longer. Look after the lights so know how many runway center lines there are at each. We've just got in the cosmic girl for the upcoming virgin Orbit launches. For this they'll be using the longer end straight out to sea!!

[BobG]

Sadly, Auckley, my knowledge of aviation vernacular isn't very much. Any chance you could translate your last message into something an ignoramus like me could understand?

Cheers!

BobG

[BobG]

I remember walking down the road, mid afternoon, to watch the B52's taking off to flatten Libya back when Gadaffi was annoying the Yanks. There was snow on the ground. One time one of the planes seemed to take an inordinate amount of time and runway to get airborne. It was obviously struggling. Turned out that it headed west for the sea outside Bristol somewhere to make a very large hole in the water before coming back to land. Normally they got back around 3 am. There was a suggestion they went on to Diego Garcia to refuel before coming back but I dunno if that's realistic. Saw the bombs though. They used to block the road while they carted a load across from the bomb dump.

Concorde used to turn up nearly every year at RIAT - along with all sorts of interesting planes.  I had a close (very close!) view of those two Mig 29's as they hit each other,  and of an Australian F 111 that trailled a long, long streak of fire right along the runway as its pilot opened some valve while the reheat was turned on. Spectacular that was. A Russian Hind pretendíng to attack the airfield was the most sinister and evil looking machine I have ever seen. The Bear was a brilliant reminder of 1950's and 60's nuclear preparation. Contra rotating airscrews and tail guns! And my all time favourite: the Mig 29 with its awesomely tight turns, its tail slides and its pilots who didn't care if they stressed the airfame or not  As far as I know no NATO plane even today has ever been able to do a tail slide. The Sukhoi 27 was another deeply impressive plane to watch. But the Russians stopped coming to RIAT 10 years ago or more. The show is poorer for their absence.

BobG

Later. Just remembered the time the Russians brought along a Mig 21 as a gift for the RAF. They had a mock dogfight between that and I think an early Sabre. Lol. The difference between those planes and those of 20 years later! The Mig 21 has the turning circle of an oil tanker.  The Mig 29 has the turning circle of my bicycle.

[auckleyflyer]

Sorry Bob. The declared runway length isn't necessarily the actual tarmac length. Donny has a turning circle at each end as does Newquay this allows large aircraft to do a u turn and vacate at a major junction to park. Newquay also has a starter extension which allows aircraft to be rolling before they enter the declared runway. Runway center line lights are every ten meters there's 189 at Donny and 208 at Newquay. Newquay also wider than Donny again not declared width but tarmacked. Donny's runway edge is at the grass Newquays same size but has 20meters each side of unused tarmac.
Newquay was also a US base and first stop off for anything coming over the pond.

[Donnywolf]

Cheers Auckleyflyer ... That's clued me up and sure bob g will feel same

Coincidentally I was in Auckleyfryer on Friday ... Med fish med and mushy peas £12.20. I've had cheaper flights than that 

[auckleyflyer]

Donny wolf it's where I got the name from! Lived in Auckley while I worked there!

[danumdon]

Sorry Bob. The declared runway length isn't necessarily the actual tarmac length. Donny has a turning circle at each end as does Newquay this allows large aircraft to do a u turn and vacate at a major junction to park. Newquay also has a starter extension which allows aircraft to be rolling before they enter the declared runway. Runway center line lights are every ten meters there's 189 at Donny and 208 at Newquay. Newquay also wider than Donny again not declared width but tarmacked. Donny's runway edge is at the grass Newquays same size but has 20meters each side of unused tarmac.
Newquay was also a US base and first stop off for anything coming over the pond.

I don.t profess to be an aviation expert but i looked at both Doncaster and Newquay on google earth. Under which ever metric you choose (and there's not much difference ) Total tarmac length, operational length, landing strip length, width(from the painted line running edge)Donny just about trumps it.

All counts for nothing though if they allow Peel's plan to come to fruition.

[Donnywolf]

Donny wolf it's where I got the name from! Lived in Auckley while I worked there!

Nice place to live I reckon. Caught my first ever fish there in '63 I suppose.

Eagle & Child still packing them in , and Auckleyfryer was in top 3 best Yorkshire chippies recently in Yorkshire Post (despite the prices)

[auckleyflyer]

Danum. I agree they are close in size and both fabulous assets, that can take any aircraft in service. Such a shame to loose it! Though I'm sure something will happen to keep it going as an airfield.

[silent majority]

It's not just about the length and width, its also about the substrate. At DSA the runway has considerable depth below the tarmac topping right up until the very edge, it had to be constructed like that to take the weight of the Vulcan bombers.

[auckleyflyer]

In my time at both airports they take annual core samples of the runway for analysis. Vulcans weren't that heavy! Used to use echo and alpha taxi ways for example the larger stuff had to use the runway and Charlie? On the odd occasion the Vulcan was parked on alpha apron it was smaller than standard 737s

[BillyStubbsTears]

Yep, Vulcans really weren't that heavy.

Maximum takeoff weight was about 1/8th of the Antonov 225 that used to fly in and out of Donny.

[Sprotyrover]

Yep, Vulcans really weren't that heavy.

Maximum takeoff weight was about 1/8th of the Antonov 225 that used to fly in and out of Donny.

When they modified the runway to take the V Bombers samples were taken off every Colliery slag heap in the region and the Stainforth slag was found to be the most durable so that's what they used to build the runway.

[SydneyRover]

Rather than concrete?

[DonnyOsmond]

Any news on the airport?

[Donnywolf]

Nadal,  zilch , nowt that I have heard.

Let's hope no news is good news but with Peel I doubt it

I've been pessimistic since I saw their first announcement and still think they are crafty b******s with a win win situation in their portfolio (NOT for the first time ... they are past masters at this )

[Dagenham Rover]

"closure of airspace and suspension of licence for DSA has been paused until further notice
So Peel have stopped / paused the closure of the airspace which means the licence will not stop tomorrow as they planned
This also is a step in the right direction as it is now still an airport and sellable as such !!"


Things are ongoing taken from Save DSA site