RAF Brize Norton, BZZ

RAF Brize Norton – Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

RAF Brize Norton (IATA: BZZ, ICAO: EGVN) in Oxfordshire, about 50 miles west of London, England, United Kingdom, is the largest airbase of the Royal Air Force. It is home to the RAF's heavy transport aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster, and its Tristar and Vickers VC-10 tankers. It is situated close to the Oxfordshire conurbations of Brize Norton and Carterton.

History

RAF Brize Norton was opened in 1937 as a training base. By the 1950s Cold War tension was escalating and the United States envisaged stationing nuclear bombers in the United Kingdom as a deterrent to Soviet aggression.

By 1950 the USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC) was based at RAF Lakenheath, RAF Marham and RAF Sculthorpe. The increasing tension of the Cold War led to a re-evaluation of these deployments and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford. As with the other stations it occupied, SAC invested heavily in extending the runway (6,000 ft to 9,000 ft), taxiways and dispersals, as well as constructing accommodation and weapons handling facilities. This work was completed in April 1951.

The first major USAF deployment was that of 21 Convair B-36 Peacemaker bombers in June 1952. B-29s and KB-29s were based at Brize Norton on Temporary Duty from December 1952 to April 1953.

In September 1953 B-47E Stratojet 6-engined bombers deployed to Brize Norton accompanied by KC-97G boom equipped tankers and were based there until 1955 when repair work began on the runways. B-47 Stratojets returned in July 1957. Later deployments included KC-97 and KC-135 tankers and the first B-58 and B-52B bombers to land in the UK.

Peace camp and protest

From 21 April to 25 April 2005, a peace camp took place, as well as the first ever demonstration in Carterton, where the base is situated.(Although this did not disrupt and was barely noticed by the residents of Carterton, who are generally supporting of the RAF's operations.)

On 12 August 2006 the base was closed down for several hours by campaigners protesting about British policy in the Middle East.

Future

With the arrival of the Globemaster (C-17 in USAF service) and the future Airbus A400M the base has an assured future. Following the scheduled closure of RAF Lyneham (home of the RAF Hercules) in 2012, the RAF's transport fleet will be further consolidated at Brize Norton.

The RAF's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft, currently envisaged to be a fleet of Airbus A330 MRTTs, will be based at Brize Norton. This aircraft will replace the VC-10 and Tristar tanker fleets.

Summary

Airport Code : BZZ
Airport Name : Raf Brize Norton
Runway Length : 10006 ft.
Runway Elevation : 287 ft.

City : Brize Norton
Country : United Kingdom
Country Abbrev. : GB
World Area Code : 493
GMT Offset : +0.0
Telephone : 00 44 1993 842551