RAF Rufforth

Royal Air Force Station Rufforth or RAF Rufforth is a former Royal Air Force station located near Rufforth in North Yorkshire, England.

Construction

RAF Rufforth was built by John Laing & Son Ltd for the Royal Air Force in 1941 (completed 1942), it is located on the south side of the village.

The airfield had one B1 and two T2 hangars and 36 aircraft hard standings and there was accommodation for 1,531 males and 251 females of all ranks.

Operations

Units

Aircraft losses

A total of 18 aircraft flying from RAF Rufforth were lost in accidents including one at Bishop Wilton Wold.

Post war

RAF Rufforth was home to 642 Gliding School for several years whilst being part of No. 60 Maintenance Unit RAF, the RAF left in 1974 and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) sold the site in 1981.

Currently (2014) the site is split into two parts. Rufforth East is an arable farm owned by the Becketts, a local farming family. Microlights and autogiros operate off the east end of runway 05/23 and a north-south link taxiway. The gyrocopter school operated by Phil Harwood has a showroom with a small museum attached to it, which is open to the public and admission is free. Rufforth West is owned by The York Gliding Centre, a Community Action Sports Club, which operates a small fleet of single and two seat gliders off runway 17/35 and the west end of runway 05/23. Pilots visiting Rufforth West, must ring the club for prior permission to land and must not overfly Rufforth East or Rufforth village to the north of the airfield. The centre section of runway 05/23 was dug up, and the land returned to agricultural use. Runway 11/29 is disused and is occasionally used by a local motorcycle safety training company for safety courses.

List of Royal Air Force conversion units

Conversion units and operational conversion units (OCU) were training units of the Royal Air Force.

History

With the introduction of new heavy bombers, the four-engined Short Stirling, Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, the Royal Air Force introduced heavy conversion units. The heavy conversion units began forming in late 1941, to qualify crews trained on medium bombers to operate the heavy bombers prior to an assignment to an operational training unit to gain experience before final posting to the operational squadrons.

After the end of the Second World War, their role was taken over by the operational conversion units. Although the units had nominal bases, it was usual for different flights and individual aircraft to be detached nearer the operational bases. Some of the heavy conversion units were involved in bombing operations over Germany.

Royal Air Force Operational Conversion Units (OCU) are training units that prepare aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. Some OCUs have a shadow, or reserve, squadron designation which is used if the unit has a war role.