Wednesday 25 March '92 was the occasion of a unique event as it was not only a celebration of the Golden Jubilee of RAF Elvington but also marked its closure as a Relief Landing Ground for RAF Church Fenton's 7FTS, the closure of which would soon follow. The airfield had an interesting history being home to two French heavy bomber squadrons in the latter part of WWII, before being the site of an expensive, but abortive expansion programme, to accommodate USAF units assigned to reinforce NATO's Central Front, in the fifties. The event was advertised as featuring flypasts by American and French a/c along with those of the RAF and BAe but apparently USAF could not spare any, despite the fact that A-10s and F-111s were daily over Yorkshire at that time. The French did better producing a pair of Mirage F1s from Cambrai while the RAF chipped in with a Canberra PR9, Buccaneer, a pair of Leeming based Tornado F3s and last, but not least, a diamond nine Tucano formation while BAe sent their Pilatus PC9 demonstrator. As Yorkshire Air Museum is celebrating its own 40th Ann. this year I shall be posting more sets of pics of key events from its history as, and when the anniversaries occur.
Closure Poster '92 by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Canberra PR9 AB 1 PRU - Closure Event Mar .'92 by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Buccaneer S2B 208 Sqn - Closure Event '92 by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
F3 s 25 Sqn. - Closure event by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Tornado F3 FK 25 Sqn - Closure Event by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Mirage F1s FAF - Elvington closure Mar '92 by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
BAe Pilatus PC9 - Elvington closure '92 by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Tucano 9 ship - Closure event '92 (1) by
Michael Britton, on Flickr
Tucano 9 ship - Closure event by
Michael Britton, on Flickr