RAE Bedford was a research airfield in the village of Thurleigh in Bedfordshire England. It was responsible for many aeronautical first, including Blind Landings. I have no connection with the area at all but was absolutely fascinated when I started reading about the work that went on there and the amazing aircraft that were tested.
Today (2021) the airfield is mostly a car storage area and a racetrack. Many of the feature of the site, including the giant wind tunnels have gone, but I wanted to restore some of it for use in MSFS. I’m not a modeler and this is pretty basic, but does include many of the original airfield buildings and the two kinetheodolite towers. Also included is the ramp used to test take off capabilities on aircraft carriers. At this time, its purely decorative as I don’t know how to harden it in MSFS (it worked fine in FSX) but that may come in the future.
If you are interested, a lot of the history of the site can be found here:-
RAE Bedford - The Beginning (bahg.org.uk)
Simply extract the attached zip file and copy the dozerbug-egvw folder to your community folder.
Due to limitations within MSFS I can’t give the airfield its correct designation in the sim. It should be EGVW, however in MSFS I have had to use EGBF, which is the default for Bedford in the sim. I don’t think I’ll have much time to improve it, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it.
Copyright Ben Watson 2021 benATcbfsim.org
This content may not be reused, edited, uploaded, or distributed without permission.
Thank you Ben for creating this!
I worked at RAE from '79 to '84 and have very fond memories of the place. I was based in Flight Systems 1 - which is the building you have modelled with the 2 domes housing the full-motion simulators (single and dual seat) and spent many happy hours in No3 hanger and the pilot block to the north of it.
The buildings between the ends of 18 and 24 were the radar research squadron which flew Canberras (if anyone out there has modelled one?) and the dispersals at the end of 27 saw occasional visits by QRA Vulcans.
You've put a great deal of time and detail in - I found one of the old kinetheodolite towers as I taxied around and yes, from what I remember the ski jump is in the right place!
The wind tunnels were on the Twinwoods site to the east - which is now a business park. This is where Glen Miller took off on his final, fatal flight when it operated as a sister airfield to Thurleigh during WWII.
Wish I could supply some photos to be used for modelling - but taking pictures was somewhat frowned upon at the time 😋
Thanks again for your work in bringing RAE Thurleigh / Bedford back to life.
3 years ago
I just wish I could do it justice. I've bought almost all of the Michael Dobson books / publications, and Wings Over Thurleigh, and also manage to get in touch with a chap who was a surveyor (I think) who took lots of pictures at the site when it went up for sale and sent me copies. Like any airfield it evolved so much over the years, so there's a bit of a mish mash of features. I'd love to have put HMS Kid on there, but I wasn't sure where it should go (I was given information on two different locations.) I'd also love to make a working Oscillating Deck, which would be great fun for rotary ops. Maybe one day when the kids are older I'll get to grips with Blender properly. Thanks for all of the kind words.
2 years ago
XR219
sparkiemark99
I have to have this one. I was in the RAF and a gang of us went up to Bedford from Northolt on a "pleasure flight"... The HS748 we were on practiced a failed engine flight all the way and we were on one engine for the whole flight. I bloody loved it. This though I got to have, I just need the 748 or an Andover to replicate that day.
3 years ago
freddielaker2