RAF Upper Heyford

Established as an RFC aerodrome in 1915, the site eventually became an RAF bomber station in the 1920s and 30s, with the veritable Handley Page Hampden Bomber equipping the 16th Operational Training Unit (OTU) in 1940. Not long after WWII, the USAF leased the air base from the Ministry Of Defense as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. In 1952, the USAFs Startegic Air Command (SAC) B47 bomber aircraft arrived and stayed until 1965. The 66th Tactical Reconnaisance Wing (TRW) took up residence with the RF101C "Voodoo" until 1969. By the mid1970s, the F100s of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) arrived and were replaced soon after by the F111E, "Aardvark". The US drawdown brought a close to US occupancy and operations at the air base in 1994, at which time the site was returned to the Ministry Of Defense.