Royal Air Force Full Sutton or RAF Full Sutton is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station located south east of

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

and north west of

Pocklington Pocklington () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, its population was 10,123. It lies east of York, and ...

, East Riding of Yorkshire,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The base did not open until May 1944, and so was the last airfield built for

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

History

The airfield opened in 1944 under No. 4 Group, as part of

, with

No. 77 Squadron RAF No. 77 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the Royal Air Force which was active in various incarnations between 1916 and 1963. History No. 77 Squadron was formed on 1 October 1916 at Edinburgh, and was equipped with B.E.2 and Royal Aircraft Factor ...

arriving at RAF Full Sutton on 15 May 1944 with the

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

Mks III and VI. The base was the last operational airfield constructed for Bomber Command in the Second World War. The base was laid out in the standard design of a heavy bomber station, having three runways in an 'A' shape. The longest was long, the second was , and the shortest was . The runways, which crossed in an almost perfect triangular pattern, were laid down with different lengths to a standard heavy bomber base design. The non-standard runway distance has been put down to the land boundaries of the base. To the south-west side of the airfield, was a railway line connecting York to Beverley. No. 77 Sqn switched to the

Douglas Dakota The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

aircraft in July 1945, then the squadron moved to RAF Broadwell on at the end of August 1945. RAF Full Sutton was switched to

RAF Transport Command RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 19 ...

being used by a flight of No. 231 Squadron RAF between 1 December 1945 and 15 January 1946 operating the

Avro Lancastrian The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a British and Canadian passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancastrian was basically a modified Lancaster bomber without armour or arma ...

C.2 before being disbanded. In the 1950s it was part of

RAF Flying Training Command Flying Training Command was an organization of the Royal Air Force; it controlled flight training units. The command's headquarters were at RAF Shinfield Park, Reading in Berkshire. History Flying Training Command was formed from the element ...

, as No. 103 Flying Refresher School RAF was here between May and November 1951 which became No. 207 Advanced Flying School RAF, which was here between November 1951 and June 1954, this unit then became No. 207 Flying Training School RAF and was here between June and July 1954 when the unit was disbanded. These schools held training on

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...

aircraft as a response to the Korean War. One of the aircraft, ''WF831'', crashed onto the railway line in 1952 just as a goods train was passing. The airfield was then placed on care and maintenance until 1959 when

No. 102 Squadron RAF No. 102 Squadron was a Royal Air Force night bomber squadron in the World War I, First World War and a heavy bomber squadron in the World War II, Second World War. After the war it flew briefly as a transport squadron before being reformed a lig ...

arrived and the airfield was re-modelled as a

PGM-17 Thor The PGM-17A Thor was the first operative ballistic missile of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was named after the Thor, Norse god of thunder. It was deployed in the United Kingdom between 1959 and September 1963 as an intermediate-range b ...

missile site, operating until 27 April 1963. The area is now used as the civilian Full Sutton Airfield, being home to the Full Sutton Flying Centre, and another part of the site houses HMP Full Sutton, which opened in April 1988.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Airfield Information Exchange
{{DEFAULTSORT:Full Sutton Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire Buildings and structures in the East Riding of Yorkshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom