RAF Alconbury was one of those many RAF bases that, from WW2 until closure, was exclusively operated by the USAF. Most famously, in the 1980s and 1990s, it was home to U2 spy planes. Around that time I often had to travel to Coventry and passing Alconbury about 8am, I would often see a U2, with its enormously long, thin wings, returning from a reconnaissance mission over eastern Europe and on its final (very slow) approach into Alconbury.
In 2009, most of the airfield, including the runway was sold to the very progressive ‘master developers’ Urban&Civic, who specialise in the very long-term (20+ years) development of huge brownfield sites, often airfields, for a mixture of housing and commerce. The new village is called Alconbury Weald. U&C are also the developers of the former RAF Waterbeach just north of Cambridge. They are owned by the charity The Wellcome Trust who run the famous Genome Campus south of Cambridge.
The final traces of this huge Cold War base are quickly disappearing, as demolition of the last aircraft hardened shelters and the ripping up of the runway and taxiways nears completion. Almost everything south of the runway has already been replaced by housing. So I asked U&C for permission to drone the site. It was quickly and willingly given – thank you 🙂
