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RAE Bedford - Wind Tunnel Site - October 2015 | Oblivion State Urban Exploration

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RAE Bedford - Wind Tunnel Site - October 2015

TrevBish.co.uk

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History from Ojay's report:

In 1946 Thurleigh became the site for the second Royal Aircraft Establishment site

Two new runways were built in the post-war period to accommodate the Bristol Brabazon aircraft (which required a very long runway) that ultimately never went into production

The site had several reasonably large windtunnels, one supersonic and one large subsonic

It also had a 'drop tower', the drop tower is now used as a skydiving training venue

The supersonic tunnel was dismantled by 2005 and the building which held the fans and driving motors is now used as the set for the BBC popular science programme, "Bang Goes The Theory"

The RAE was deeply involved in the development of Concorde and was also a centre for the development of the Instrument Landing System.

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Thank You!

 

hamtagger

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Cool place and shots there mate, i'm guessing the other main control room is still sealed then? Enjoyed this one :)

:comp

 

Conrad

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Looks like an amazing place, nice on.

 

hamtagger

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Further down the corridor from this one theres the main control room. I had a quick re-visit a few months ago and the door to that corridor had the door handle removed and sealed shut :(

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Urbexbandoned

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Very sentimental this place is to me, love seeing it. Some great shots Trev! Yes me and HT went back when they were filming and sneaked in, the other one had been closed off. I never got to see that on my visit either :(

 

Maniac

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Gotta love a good control panel, I've still not managed to see these with my own eyes.

 

TrevBish.co.uk

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Oh I wished I had known lol. I would of looked. Saying that we did spend half an hour on the actual air Base looking for this place! Then realised it wasn't there.

 

hamtagger

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I think it's sealed anyway mate, there is another building on this site though with another small control room too. Did you have a pop at the air traffic control tower (over on the airfield near the millions of cars) :)

 

TrevBish.co.uk

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We went for a walk on the site with all the cars looking for this. Had no issues with security but was the wrong end to the tower. By the time we realised we were at the wrong location we needed to move fast due to time and being 2 hours from home.

 

hamtagger

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Ah I see mate that's a shame. Its a massive site isn't it? I'll maybe have a look at the car bit next time I go as there were too many people knocking about when I went :)

 

skeleton key

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Good to see Trev and some very nice bits still knocking around in that area :cool2:

 

The_Raw

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Looks epic in there, hadn't realised how big it was until the picture with people giving it some scale at the bottom. Nice report mate (y)

 
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