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RAF Coltishall

RAF Coltishall closed in November 2006.
A flypast marked the final day of operational flying at RAF Coltishall on Saturday 1 April, 2006

History of Coltishall
Work on RAF Coltishall started in February 1939. The airfield, then known as Scottow Aerodrome, was initially built as a bomber base. Following the established tradition, the station would have been named after the nearest railway station, which would have made it "RAF Buxton", but to avoid possible confusion with Buxton, Derbyshire, it was named after the local village of Coltishall instead. The airfield entered service in May 1940 as a fighter base. During the Second World War, Coltishall operated the Hawker Hurricane, and a notable Coltishall fighter pilot was Douglas Bader. It later became home to night fighters.

At the same time the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm operated aircraft from RAF Coltishall over the North Sea. At the end of the war, Coltishall was briefly given over to Polish squadrons until they returned home.

Post-war, the station was home to a variety of units and aircraft including de Havilland Mosquitos, Gloster Javelins, English Electric Lightnings and - from 1963 - the "Historic Aircraft Flight" (now known as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight). The last Lightnings left Coltishall in 1974 to be replaced that same year by the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar.

In terms of fixed wing aircraft, the station was exclusively a Jaguar station from then on. Coltishall was also home to the yellow Search And Rescue (SAR) helicopters conducting air-sea rescue operations until SAR operations were moved to RAF Wattisham, in Suffolk where they remain.

With the arrival of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the gradual retirement of the Jaguar force began. Coltishall was not chosen as a future Typhoon base for a number of reasons, and so, with no future RAF role for Coltishall, the station was earmarked for closure. The last of the Jaguar squadrons left on 1 April 2006 and the station finally closed on 30 November 2006.



Information courtesy of Wikipedia