RAF Collyweston No. 5 Training Depot | |
Location: | Collyweston, Northamptonshire |
Country: | England |
Type: | Royal Air Force satellite station |
Pushpin Map: | Northamptonshire#UK |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Shown within Northamptonshire |
Pushpin Label: | RAF Collyweston |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Ownership: | Air Ministry |
Operator: | Royal Air Force |
Controlledby: | RAF Fighter Command 1940–1945 *No. 12 Group RAF RAF Flying Training Command 1945 *No. 21 Group RAF |
Code: | WI |
Built: | 1939/40 |
Used: | 1917 May 1940– |
Fate: | returned to agriculture |
Battles: | First World War European theatre of World War II |
Elevation: | 86m (282feet) |
R1-Number: | 00/00 |
R1-Surface: | grass |
R2-Number: | 00/00 |
R2-Surface: | grass |
R3-Number: | 00/00 |
R3-Surface: | grass |
R4-Number: | 00/00 |
R4-Surface: | grass |
Royal Air Force Collyweston or more simply RAF Collyweston is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located 3.2miles south-west of Stamford, Lincolnshire and 11miles north east of Corby, Northamptonshire, England.
The airfield was a satellite station of RAF Wittering, and used by the No. 1426 Flight (Enemy Aircraft) Flight RAF during the Second World War.
Founded in 1917 as No. 5 Training Depot Station, the station was renamed RAF Collyweston following formation of the Royal Air Force, via merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) on 1 April 1918. The airfield was absorbed as a satellite station of RAF Wittering in 1939. A unit at Collyweston during the war was No. 1426 (Captured Enemy Aircraft) Flight, they flew and assessed enemy aircraft that crashed or forced landed.
In 1941, the runways of Wittering and Collyweston were joined to make one 2miles long grass runway.[1]
The following units were based at Collyweston at some point:
Most of the former RAF Collyweston site has been returned to agricultural uses. No infrastructure remains of the former airfield, the exception being its remote weapon storage area (WSA, or bomb dump), which is now used by a private company for secure logistics storage.