Ex AGILE STANCE

[thevulcan]

Manston hasn't operated as an airport since 2014. Multiple attempts to return it to an operational airport have been met time and again with legal challenges from local groups opposing the airport's reopening. Since then with no clear future ahead of it Manston's expansive tarmac has been used as a lorry park to ease HGV flow into the port of Dover.

I wondered why my flight hasn't arrived yet i'd only been waiting 7 years.

[Andy_99]

Plenty of Spare Capacity at Newcastle at present.

Motorway wise The A1(M) at Peterborough seems very wide for the volume of traffic, just a bit spoilt with the number of gantries.

[blackhandgang17]

West freugh,Macrahanish,Prestwick,Stornoway,Leuchars are all possibilities in Scotland.Possibly Kinloss depending on how much damage the army has done to the runway with lots of dispersal in the woods where the north line used to be

[StrawdogUK69]

Blackbushe International Airport , maybe ??

[Thunder]

Don't think either West Freugh or Machrihanish are suitable, the former doesn't even have serviceable runway and the latter has a runway length of under 5000ft.

[RegimortGUK]

Biggin Hill or Shoreham anyone

[reheat]

Humberside or Donny would be good.

[jordan]

I'm with Steve.Donny or Humberside.Too quiet out here.

[jordan]

I'm with Steve.Donny or Humberside.Too quiet out here.Bring on some noise as low as you like

[PORTPHANTOM]

Suppose was a bit of toe dipping using Wittering the other week.So Cottesmore a possibility too? Presume Honingtons too far gone to be a possible.Bentwaters anyone?

[Pirty20]

Preston M55 new link road before it opens, Donny, Boulmer on the pad? and Dundee. leaving me with… a fair few F-35’s to disperse. Can’t even stick them in that forest.

[Mattaddiction]

Motorway wise The A1(M) at Peterborough seems very wide for the volume of traffic, just a bit spoilt with the number of gantries.

I've always wondered about that stretch of road every time I drive down it: Unusually wide, unusually straight and unusually flat (for a British road).

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[Red-Eye-Knight]

Quite an interesting read this story if it's true? As it cannot be an April fool as we are well past that.

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/raf-dis ... motorways/

[Mark]

Don't think either West Freugh or Machrihanish are suitable, the former doesn't even have serviceable runway and the latter has a runway length of under 5000ft.

Thought Machrihanish had one of the longest runways in the UK. Campbeltown Airport might only use 5000ft of it though... Also didn't realise that the Freughs runways were that knackered!!

[Ghost from above]

The M55 motorway, at Weeton was used as a temporary runway before it was opened to the public.
They used a Jaguar GR1 taking off from nearby Warton airfield on 26th April 1975, it landed on the motorway, loaded four cluster bombs before departing.

Article and picture about it
https://www.militaryimages.net/media/se ... way.29501/

[Ghost from above]

Just found the video for the Jag on the M55

https://youtu.be/VeBZ3xbgN_M

[Thunder]

Don't think either West Freugh or Machrihanish are suitable, the former doesn't even have serviceable runway and the latter has a runway length of under 5000ft.

Thought Machrihanish had one of the longest runways in the UK. Campbeltown Airport might only use 5000ft of it though... Also didn't realise that the Freughs runways were that knackered!!

It did over 10,000ft, until the MoD pulled out and sold the site. Maintenance of a runway that size takes a big budget which Campbelltown Airport obviously doesn’t have, so the runway length was reduced to their requirements.

You might be able to land a C-130 or A400 at West Freugh but that’s all.

[Mark]

Don't think either West Freugh or Machrihanish are suitable, the former doesn't even have serviceable runway and the latter has a runway length of under 5000ft.

Thought Machrihanish had one of the longest runways in the UK. Campbeltown Airport might only use 5000ft of it though... Also didn't realise that the Freughs runways were that knackered!!

It did over 10,000ft, until the MoD pulled out and sold the site. Maintenance of a runway that size takes a big budget which Campbelltown Airport obviously doesn’t have, so the runway length was reduced to their requirements.

You might be able to land a C-130 or A400 at West Freugh but that’s all.

Ah ok, fair enough. Liverpool is still looking promising as per the initial official notification though..

[sschofield]

Macrihanish was always "rumoured" to have been a bolthole for the "F-19 Stealth Fighter" as it was known back in the mid-80's, although i don't think there was ever a shred of evidence to back this up, although if you ever read the Groom Lake "Aurora sighting" story in one of the big publications of the day (I think it was Aircraft Illustrated?) it seems that any basis of fact wasn't a big factor in the reporting of these things anyway!

The suggestion was that anything like the Stealth fighter would need a decent runway length, hence the selection of Macrihanish, although again I think the entire thing is wishful thinking by the writer

[page_verify]

This list of the UK's longest runways looks like it'll be reasonably accurate.
http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/runway-lengths.html

However, I don't think it'll be runway length that matters to the RAF. Some civilian aerodromes in the UK don't allow visiting aircraft with afterburners, flares, or ejection seats, never mind weapons.