I was there 1978-1999 and reckon I witnessed the best of it, with testing of Jaguar, Tornado IDS/F3, Hawk 60/100/200 series, the FBW 'Fly by wire' Jaguar, EAP, the experimental aircraft collaboration, and finally Typhoon. I can still smell the AVTUR and feel the afterburners. Legacy aircraft, such as Canberra, Lightning, Strikemaster and Hunter were all in the mix too, supporting as chase, photographic support or targets for radar trials. Add in the international visitors - the huge Ananov was a frequent visitor - along with the occasional Galaxy, many C130's - as well as many foreign fighter aircraft - it made a fantastic theatre, probably the best in the world at the time. You could always find me wandering across the airfield with a piece of paper in my hand to witness the goings on, eg the day 6 Lightnings returned from Saudi Arabia.

I worked on Jaguar, Tornado and Hawk, commercial and project management roles and felt like a kid in a sweet shop.managing to blag a back-seater in a Buccaneer once, target for Tornado F3 Foxhunter trials.

With the help of their Heritage Unit, I've finally secured a tranche of plans and images to get me started. The project is of similar scale to Little Staughton, maybe a year's work now I'm somewhat further down the learning curve on Blender. With an XP12 Typoon somewhere on the horizon, plus @alpeggio re-lifing of various other British military marks, Warton is the rightful home, offering access to the valleys of North Wales and the English Lake District.

The build will attempt to re-create it as it was then, inc wind tunnels, nav aids, hangarage, offices and static aircraft.

Image Courtesy BAE Systems.

So far, that's all I've managed, and I'm currently stuck with no access to libraries within WED (with this and some other sceneries), and no idea what's causing it. I might have to start hanging out in the Scenery forums again! It would be good to make some improvements, but I'll probably soon upload an "as is" XP12 version in the meantime.

Also good news that Shaun (Mr3D) has been able to restore his HMS Jackdaw scenery after it was recently lost from the DM. That's an outstandingly good WWII scenery, and being just across the Firth of Forth it's ideal for short 'Jackdaw to Drem' test flights whenever XP gets a new warbird.

For anyone not familiar with it already; I started work on this in 2008, as I wanted a suitable grass field to fly Heinz's Spitfire from. RAF Drem seemed ideal as it was decommissioned, had grass runways till it closed, and was home to many Spitfire squadrons. Progress was slow, I had a basic field to fly out of, but the impetus get something worth sharing only came when Shaun released Jackdaw. But despite all the years going by.... it could still be called a work-in-progress (but for the lack of any progress!).

A few facts about RAF Drem: It was a Fighter Command field, part of 13 Group. Also home to the Radio Development Flight, who produced the Serrate nightfighter radar system. A pioneering night lighting system was developed by the station commander, unfortunately, I found no way of representing this in XP. Drem also saw Fleet Air Arm squadrons, and ended the war under the control of the Admiralty, as HMS Nighthawk. In May 1945 the German command in Norway arrived at Drem in three white Ju.52s to surrender to the Allies.

I am anouncing a new scenery project of Stow Maries great war aerodrome. It is a restored WW1 aerodrome in Great Britian. My scenery will be high qualtity and have many deatales. It is 90% finished and vegetation and mesh needs to be fixed up. It includes many deatales like accurate buildings, static aircraft, vechicles, and many other 3d objects. Expect release to be by the end of the week. If you are interested in testing this scenery before it come out please send me a PM telling why you could help, I need people who have WED experience and/or 3d modeling experience.

I hope you guys will enjoy this scenery as it will be a great place to fly WW1 aircraft. Pictures and more news will come soon.

The LFKY air race is a fictional track of art deco pylons set in the French Alps, near the border with the lake Geneva region of Switzerland.

This promotes great flying fun and wonderful screenshots:

@Tieman. 's D-551 at the first red pylon.
lap clocked at 3min 18 seconds

The goal is to produce the most authentic WW2 Bomber Command airfield of any flight sim platform, accurate in every respect.

Phase 1 is planned for release this autumn, to include every structure within Little Staughton's Technical Area, as well as runways, dispersals, lights, animated static aircraft, animated ground traffic, bomb dump(s), typical Pathfinder rmunitions and key local landmarks pilots would have recognised. Ph 2, to be released later to include Communal Sites 1-10. When complete, the model will include every structure, feature and detail of the Air Min Site Plan, typical of any operational Bomber Command base.

In the time it will take me to complete both phases, they built the real thing.

Two images:

• June 1944 Sunset beyond Lancs on dispersals, control tower and Flight Offices of 582 Pathfinder Sqn. Shooting-in Butts on the horizon.
• main runway, east to west, lit as per Air Min regulations, inc Chance FloodLights and Totem Poles to mark landing end.

A small sample of over 100 structures now complete with the Tech Area almost done. Runways and pans laid out but not yet polished. Airfield lighting system installed which accurately replicates the Air Min Class 2 spec for Bomber Command inc colours. Every building extensively researched (many sources inc Air Min Record Site Plan, LIDAR, WW2 Aerial images, personal recce visits etc).

This sets the stage. Badly needs a study level Lanc (582 Sqn) like this and Mosquito (109 Sqn) to grace it. Little Staughton, when 'open', can also host visiting Halifax, Short Stirling, P-51 Mustang, Hurricane, Spitfire, Ansons as drop-ins or diversions. @Fatherofsam who understands Blender is modelling the vehicles that will buzz around the airfield.

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan - Saskatchewan https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/323117-british-commonwealth-air-training-plan-saskatchewan/

Introduction

The Little Staughton airbase was constructed in 1941 to 1942, about 20 miles south of Cambridge, on about 600 acres of prime farmland, known as Staughton Moor. Several Pubs and farms had to be demolished, and was originally occupied by 8^th Air Force in May 1942, as an advanced air depot with 2,500 personnel. B-17s  were based there until early 1944 when the USAAF moved to Alconbury for its better road access.

So, on March 1^st 1944, the 109 Mosquito and 582 Lancaster Sqns moved in, and commenced operations in April 1944 for 13 months of operations, dropping 8,000 tons of bombs. They were both elite Pathfinder Sqns, with the 109 sqn being the pioneer for Oboe.

Why this scenery?

The author, “Back2TheBike” was inspired by his Father’s RAF service, as a Sgt Pilot on Lancasters. Posted to Little Staughton after the war.

The amount of research done was exceptional.

18 months of effort and typically 4 hours a day, based primarily on the Air Ministry Record Site Plan, covering all 173 structures listed, with every structure modelled from scratch in Sketchup, then textured in Photoshop, and PBR/Normal maps in Gimp. FatherofSam made the David Brown tractor, animated the tires, the lighting and 3d figures.

He joined the Airfield Research Group, and supplemented their records with images from Richard Flagg’s UK Airfields website, over 30 books and wartime aerial photographs to get the field lines and building orientations, also multiple site visits, interviews, and established a small group of interested local villagers, who provided anecdotal evidence.

Installation

The test version sent to me was 2.04 gigabyte in size, and uses the following libraries;

CDB

MisterX

OpenScenery

PM

HandyObjects

Exploration and Walkthrough

From above you can see this is a very extensive and detailed airbase, with three runways, the main one being 24/ 06 at 1780m long, with the shortest 01/ 19 (923m) intersecting half way through, and then runway 12/ 30 crossing both the main runway at the ¾ distance and its length being 1200m. There are ten user parking ramps in the scenery, dotted around its length.

When starting from the main runway 24, you’ll see on the left, the Mosquitos, and on the right the Lancasters forming up to use the runway.

The runways and taxiways are very historically accurate, and all with excellent textures that help take you back to this time in history.

The detailed ground textures, foliage and surroundings, have all been carefully considered, and the pathways, hedgerows, woods and farms are all inspired by wartime maps and photographs.

One of the most impressive ways the author has brought this scenery to life, are all the animations, some are simply aircraft warming up their engines, others are being towed into place by tractors, while yet more are lining up for the runway. There are trucks of many different types driving around the map in very realistic ways, that make you want to stop for a while and just watch this airbase come alive.

The lighting has also been thoroughly added in the most accurate ways possible, with outer approach lights, Chance lights and the LX identifier next to the tower and the Pundit light.

The buildings are all made only for this scenery, and are accurate copies of the real things, with many hangars also having detailed interiors, ground clutter, and 2d personnel, which allowed the faces of the real people to be present, as a tribute to them all.

As if that wasn’t enough, you can go exploring the many village elements, such as the Church, farms and other civil buildings, even a butchers shop.

The night lighting references the RAF’s lighting standards of the day, including the accurate use of colours and types.

I was relieved to find that all this detail and animation didn’t hit the frame rates very much at all, so there was no sudden drop on approaching the airbase, or when landing and taxiying.

Conclusion

Little Staughton by Back2TheBike must be the most detailed WW2 airbase scenery I’ve seen, and is available for free for all RAF and WW2 fans to enjoy. The stand out accuracy and details, along with the many animations mean that it will take quite a while to fully explore.

My final verdict is 10/10.