Diversionary Airfields

[Doughnut]

General question. Following the recent IFE B-52 landing at Mildenhall what is the status of UK airfields regarding their ability to deal with such emergencies ?
Which bases can handle aircraft outside of normal operating hours ? Obviously control tower and radar / radio but what about fire cover ?

[Malcolm]

General question. Following the recent IFE B-52 landing at Mildenhall what is the status of UK airfields regarding their ability to deal with such emergencies ?
Which bases can handle aircraft outside of normal operating hours ? Obviously control tower and radar / radio but what about fire cover ?

In the 80's/90's there used to be about a dozen Military Emergency Diversion Airfields (MEDA's) dotted around the country which were supposedly 24H available with a declared crash/fire cover. Nowadays I think we're down to just one - Brize Norton. When Brize is closed for runway works or similar, I think they usually transfer responsibility to either Waddington or Marham. There is nothing to stop military aircraft using civilian airports in an emergency - though not many of those are open 24H either. Be fun to see a B-52 on the deck at Heathrow :-)

QRA/Tansor are also 24 Hour, and that means there will be minimum cover 24H at both Coningsby and Lossie. However, crash cover for larger aircraft needs to be a lot higher than for a pair of Typhoons, so a B52 in the middle of the night probably wouldn't want to go there unless it absolutely had to. At the end of the day if your ar5e is on fire the captain will land wherever he wants and then worry about justifying it later. There have been cases of unexpected landings at Lakenheath (Dutch F-16's IIRC) and they ended up with security climbing on the aircraft pointing guns at the pilots. But if you're on fire (the Dutch weren't) then at least you're safer on the deck with a gun pointing at you than still in the air.

I was surprised to learn that a B52 doesn't actually need a particularly wide runway to operate. Several have been to airfields with 150 feet widths, and the B52 outriggers are 148 feet apart. Seems tight to me, but it's obviously permissible for the outriggers to be off the tarmac.

[Snoop 95]

I imagine that a busy civil airport would do anything to deny landing to a military aircraft even if it was on a Mayday, although with no alternative landing site I can't imagine they would maintain that position. Understandably, they would do anything to avoid disruption to scheduled services because of the resulting financial claims and misplacement of aircraft and crew.
It would be interesting to know the strategy behind such incidents. We know that Stansted is the designated airport for hijacks as everything is primed for such events, but I wonder if any such designation exists for IFE's; both civil and military.

[Pi]

Basically just Brize Norton and possibly Waddo now, Marham, Waddo, Lyneham, Lossie were extended hours airfields after the demise of MEDA's but its all change nowadays.

[Pi]

Believe Brize have used Heathrow or Manchester as diversion airfields before and guess still do.

[vulcanxl425]

The RAF in late 1980's used to have eight Master Diversion Airfields. Leeming,Leuchars,Lossiemouth,Manston,St Mawgan,Valley,Waddington and Wattisham . In addition in Germany we had Wildenrath.

Much more cover then but also much busier times with Military aircraft.

[graham luxton]

The RAF in late 1980's used to have eight Master Diversion Airfields. Leeming,Leuchars,Lossiemouth,Manston,St Mawgan,Valley,Waddington and Wattisham . In addition in Germany we had Wildenrath.

Much more cover then but also much busier times with Military aircraft.

Early one morning in Feb'91, 4 Buff's returning to Fairford after a bombing mission over Iraq, all got weather diverted to St Mawgan - the only time B-52's have diverted to a non-USAF base in the UK.

[Red-Eye-Knight]

Former RAF Leuchars airbase can still be used as a diversionary airfield as still has full runway, radar, control tower and fire cover, sometimes still see aircraft there but not very often.

It will be getting used around September this year by the RAF QRA from Lossie due to Lossie getting a new runway laid.

[Strathayr]

Don’t forget Prestwick long wide runway 24 hour major fire cover.With military aircraft handling facilities availability.

[Malcolm]

I've just looked at an old copy of the "British Isles & North Atlantic" En Route Supplement from 1988. MEDA airfields generally maintained their facilities as published, but during the night crash cover could be reduced to a minimum of CAT3 (on a scale of CAT0-CAT7). CAT3 is/was equivalent to NATO/Civilian Fire Protection level 4 (on a 1-9 scale). At that time Brize was not an MEDA, but was H24 and Crash7, and the big civil airports were H24 and Fire8or9. Lyneham, Leuchars and Lossie were MEDA's, so H24, but only Crash5 during the day and Crash3 at night/weekends.

AIUI the required Fire/Crash level depends on aircraft type and the number of people on board. Generally the bigger the aircraft and the more people you have on board, then the higher the crash/fire cover level you need to operate into an airfield. If you're a B747/A380 with 400+ POB the you'll need CAT7 whereas a Typhoon with one pilot only needs CAT3.

Diverting due to weather is one thing - it's not a PAN or Mayday unless you've cocked up you fuel calculations. If you are a PAN ATC will try to give you priority to get to your chosen destination. If you're on fire (or a Mayday) you'll land more or less anywhere you can and sort out the repercussions later.

[Supra]

You have posted Interesting info' here Malcolm. Inspired by your input I did some research myself.
As a kid, I always remember St Mawgan being a ‘MDA’ (Master Diversion Airfield) which appeared at the time to attract aircraft merely because of the extended opening times?? Judging by the sheer amount of unusual visiting aircraft to be seen in the air doing circuits, or parked on the VASS ramp or other ground dispersals. I used to welcome the 24/7 activity, but not everybody did!
I have really only known of MDA instead of MEDA. Did somebody mandate the change due to the clash of acronym with Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) now also popularly called Minimum Descent Height (MDH)?

I Googled the following mainly from https://www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.u ... 98-runways, so due Credit to them for the historic state of play in 2012.
Don't forget St Mawgan had a 9000 x 300 foot runway from mid 1943 (& the other VHT airfield, Heathrow, and VHBs c.45), so it's length is nothing to do with MEDAs, V bombers etc, but more to do with handling large amounts of very heavy aircraft movements (inc diversions) and being able to accept the envisaged types such as the B-36, which did require a lot of runway.
Then you have the longest and widest runways in British military use, such as the 9000 x 750 ft wide emergency airfields at Carnaby, Woodbridge, and Manston.
The subject is further complicated by at which stage do you compare the runways and airfields, ie end of WWII, mid Cold-war 1965? For example comparing Fairford now against Burtonwood past doesn't prove a great deal.
From 1970 En-Route Supplement, Elvington was 10,000 with 2,750 feet sterile. Brize was 10,000 feet and if you compare it today (Where's the Path etc) with any 9,000 footer, Brize is substantially longer. It seems a tad longer than Fairford, and a bit shorter than Macrihanish

Longest runway in the UK is Heathrow, 27R / 09L at 3902 x 50 metres (12,800 x 164 ft)…..Allegedly?
Clearly over time many revisions have been made, resulting in shortened, narrowed, reduced runways. Multiple complete closures of locations with long runways can be seen from the list below. In some instances Landing Aids, weight-bearing under & over-runs & simple extensions have been added, as proposed for Fairford & maybe Waddington?

For Instance…..Greenham Common end to end was 12000 ft
SD722, 1956 states 10,000 by 200 ft, asphalt. At eastern end there is a 1,000 ft overrun. No further extension possible.
The runway ran along a ridge. At the western end a further 1,000 extension was possible but would’ve very much worsened the approach over the southern outskirts of Newbury and is not safeguarded.
It would seem the runway between the eastern and western peri-tracks was 10,000 ft.
Lossiemouth, St Mawgan, Wethersfield are 9,100; Mildenhall 9,200; Upper Heyford 9,600; Prestwick 9,800.
Macrihanish, Brize, Elvington, Fairford are 10,000 ft
Boscombe Down & Thurleigh are 10,500 ft
Unless of course somebody knows different!

[graham luxton]

When SAC requested to base B-47's in the UK it asked the Government for 12,000ft x 200ft runways but we would only agree to 10,000ft with 1,000ft over runs at each end. That's why Greenham, Brize, Fairford, Bruntingthorpe and Chelveston were 10,000 footers. Upper Heyford, Lakenheath and Mildenhall had to make do with a bit less. Stansted has a 10,000 ft runway because during the 50's, SAC planned to base KC-97's there. In contrast, our V-Bomber bases were a standard 9,000ft long.

[mustang5861]

Boscombe Down & Thurleigh are 10,500 ft
Unless of course somebody knows different!

Thurleigh (RAE Bedford to me) used to get a lot of military visitors on practice approaches and airliners bashing the circuit on crew-training flights, making full use of what was one of the longest runways in the UK. After the airfield closed in 1994, there was talk about turning it into a freight-handling facility. Some of the local NIMBYs (one in particular), who had campaigned for several years to have the airfield closed when it was still an active RAE/DERA/DRA facility, started putting around their own 'Project Fear' propaganda claiming that dozens of 747 freighters would be flying in and out 24/7 and the local roads would be completely clogged night and day with artics arriving and leaving the site. What was then Bedfordshire County Council didn't want this, so they approved an application by the racing driver Jonathan Palmer (of PalmerSport) to build a racetrack to allow 'petrolheads' to get behind the wheel and put the pedal to the metal on corporate days out. Part of the racetrack cut right through the runway - how very convenient - thus putting an end to it being one of the longest runways in the UK.

[09andrew]

I attended an ‘Aldun Ferguson’ lecture on the History of Burtonwood recently and got to hear the tale of in the mid 50’s a B36 diverted was asked to hold over Lancashire (Warrington was Lancs back then) mid tower shift change. The aircraft then kept the local area awake for several hours due to it being forgotten about!! Maybe someone on here may have more details? Or memories of Burtonwood?

[webbysdad]

Malcolm wrote:
I was surprised to learn that a B52 doesn't actually need a particularly wide runway to operate. Several have been to airfields with 150 feet widths, and the B52 outriggers are 148 feet apart. Seems tight to me, but it's obviously permissible for the outriggers to be off the tarmac.

When I worked at Brize, many years ago, I was told that although B52's had landed there previously, they wouldn't be able to as the runway edge lights had been moved from the grass at the edge onto the tarmac! B52 outrigger wheels were then expected to wipe out the lights!!! Also, regarding V bomber runway length, when SAC were at Brize with B47's a Vulcan visited and after lunch taxied out to the end of the runway. A fair number of base personnel came out to watch, the Vulcan was light, just enough to get back home and proceeded to use about half the runway, rotate and go near vertical and "bored a hole in the sky"!! Needless to say jaws dropped and the phrase "I don't believe it!" was heard all over.

[graham luxton]

Malcolm wrote:
I was surprised to learn that a B52 doesn't actually need a particularly wide runway to operate. Several have been to airfields with 150 feet widths, and the B52 outriggers are 148 feet apart. Seems tight to me, but it's obviously permissible for the outriggers to be off the tarmac.

When I worked at Brize, many years ago, I was told that although B52's had landed there previously, they wouldn't be able to as the runway edge lights had been moved from the grass at the edge onto the tarmac! B52 outrigger wheels were then expected to wipe out the lights!!! Also, regarding V bomber runway length, when SAC were at Brize with B47's a Vulcan visited and after lunch taxied out to the end of the runway. A fair number of base personnel came out to watch, the Vulcan was light, just enough to get back home and proceeded to use about half the runway, rotate and go near vertical and "bored a hole in the sky"!! Needless to say jaws dropped and the phrase "I don't believe it!" was heard all over.

I was told the same thing about the lights at Brize - that's why the last Buff's to use it were in Sep - Oct'83. No wonder the base personnel were impressed with the Vulcan's climb out because in comparison, the B-47 had a very low rate of climb. It was however spectacular in another way - the noise, the smoke and for heavy ones returning to the US, an extremely long take off roll which often made me think the departure was going to end badly. That's why SAC wanted the UK to provide them with 12,000ft runways like theirs in the 'states as 10K was on the short side - refused on the grounds of cost I believe.

[DJ17]

Campeltown/Machrihanish is now 1750m x 46m with a fence across the runway at the western end, and the RAF don't have Bases they have Stations.

[Dazza37]

I imagine that a busy civil airport would do anything to deny landing to a military aircraft even if it was on a Mayday...

There is often some breathtakingly stupid comments written on this forum but, bravo, this one takes it to whole new level!
I am (almost) lost for words...

-Dazza

[morleyca]

Gazza that's a classic..lol

[fires999]

I can hear it now :
"Airforce One , this is Luton Radar...I'm sorry, but as we are unsure of your credit status for maintenance and refuelling you are not authorised to land...please fly 180 degress and maintain flight level 50 with your burning wings ...contact Stansted on 136.9 ......!!!!!!! "

Love it morleyca and dazza