So that's what they're hiding! (possibly one for the aircraft fans)

[Andrew_Culture]

A while back I posted that I'd just been out on a lunchtime ride and got a puncture, I stopped by some big gates to inspect the tyre. I noticed when I stopped that some tarpaulins were being pulled over some cars that were on trailers some way behind the gates.

After a minute or two a chap who was leaving through the gates in Range Rover stopped and asked if everything was okay, I replied that I had a puncture and he nodded and drove off.

About a minute later a very attractive lady walked up to the gates and uttered those tell-tale words 'can I help you?'. I took the hint and walked my bike a hundred yards further up the road to fix my puncture.

I always wondered why they were so keen that I didn't loiter, then totally at random the violinist in my band mentioned that she was exploring the area on foot once and stumbled upon a field full of aircraft fuselages. Turns out it's the same place of intrigue that I had gotten a puncture outside. Our violinist is very charming, and when she got 'caught' she charmed them into letting her have a proper good snout.

What's more amazing is that this place is on Google Earth...


I have cycled by this place countless times and had no idea! I'd love to have a good look around.


What have new facts have you discovered about places you thought you knew well?

 

[Fnaar]

It's the missing Spitfires from Burma.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Look like scud missiles to my untrained eye.

 

[Hotblack Desiato]

A while back I posted that I'd just been out on a lunchtime ride and got a puncture, I stopped by some big gates to inspect the tyre. I noticed when I stopped that some tarpaulins were being pulled over some cars that were on trailers some way behind the gates.

After a minute or two a chap who was leaving through the gates in Range Rover stopped and asked if everything was okay, I replied that I had a puncture and he nodded and drove off.

About a minute later a very attractive lady walked up to the gates and uttered those tell-tale words 'can I help you?'. I took the hint and walked my bike a hundred yards further up the road to fix my puncture.

I always wondered why they were so keen that I didn't loiter, then totally at random the violinist in my band mentioned that she was exploring the area on foot once and stumbled upon a field full of aircraft fuselages. Turns out it's the same place of intrigue that I had gotten a puncture outside. Our violinist is very charming, and when she got 'caught' she charmed them into letting her have a proper good snout.

What's more amazing is that this place is on Google Earth...


I have cycled by this place countless times and had no idea! I'd love to have a good look around.


What have new facts have you discovered about places you thought you knew well?

Looks like scrap from a former USAAF base?

These bases were built for the cold war by the USA on British soil. When they left at the end of the 'war' the planners thought 'great, a ready made airport'. What they next found was that the entire thing was wired for 110v instead the UK's 240v and the cost to rewire was prohibitive. What a shame.

 

[Theseus]

This place used to be an ammo store, apparently the chap that bought it off the MoD sold the watch towers that came with it for more than the whole thing cost him.

 

[siadwell]

Bing bird's eye view: http://binged.it/WD8mte
Harriers?

 

[DCLane]

Bing bird's eye view: http://binged.it/WD8mte
Harriers?

Move up/down a bit and there's passenger planes on the drive and front garden

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Move up/down a bit and there's passenger planes on the drive and front garden

Are they Lear Jet parts?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Looks like scrap from a former USAAF base?

These bases were built for the cold war by the USA on British soil. When they left at the end of the 'war' the planners thought 'great, a ready made airport'. What they next found was that the entire thing was wired for 110v instead the UK's 240v and the cost to rewire was prohibitive. What a shame.

Bentwaters and Woodbridge are just a few miles away, the runway was so big it was a standby landing site for the Space Shuttle!

I worked at Lakenheath for a few years and the building I worked in was half 110v and half 240v, which used to lead to a lot of folk killing their computers!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

This place used to be an ammo store, apparently the chap that bought it off the MoD sold the watch towers that came with it for more than the whole thing cost him.

I tried to rent out some of the underground ammo stores at Bentwaters to use as rehearsal rooms for bands but had no joy.

 

[MrJamie]

Is it this place? http://aircraftspotting.co.uk/suffolk.php#sproughton aircraft storage spares

I love that them trying to keep what's there private resulted in discussing them online

 

[screenman]

Just outside Coningsby in Lincolnshire there is a Karting place where my youngest used to race called Windleys, you can see it on Google Earth. Saddest sight to see there is the huge pile of metal that was once the Lockerbie plane.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Is it this place? http://aircraftspotting.co.uk/suffolk.php#sproughton aircraft storage spares

I love that them trying to keep what's there private resulted in discussing them online

Yup! I'm going to cycle past at lunchtime to try and reclaim a KOM I lost last night. I would like to point out that they were perfectly charming to me when I had a puncture!

 

[Theseus]

Somebody took thier aircraft spotting hobby too far ...

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Bing bird's eye view: http://binged.it/WD8mte
Harriers?

Odd, when I first clicked on it the picture seemed to show something that lloked like a Mig 21, but then the picture changed quickly to one of dismembered wings and fusealges