Qualla: RAF Elvington https://qualla.com/raf-elvington en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: RAF Elvington https://qualla.com/raf-elvington RAF Elvington: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ On 20 September 2006, Richard Hammond climbed into a jet-powered car called the Vampire on the runway at Elvington and pointed it down what had been built fifty years earlier to handle nuclear bombers. He reached 280 miles per hour. Then a tyre exploded. The car flipped and ground itself across the concrete that the US Air Force had laid as Britain's longest runway. Hammond suffered serious brain injuries but made a full recovery, and the crash became one of the most famous moments in Top Gear's history. It was also a reminder of what Elvington really is: not a runway, but a 3,094-metre strip of Cold War excess that has been used for fifty years to chase records that civilian roads would never allow.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Elvington: The Free French Bombers https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ Elvington opened in 1942 as a satellite of No. 4 Group RAF Bomber Command, originally home to No. 77 Squadron. The squadron lost more than 500 aircrew killed, captured, or missing during its time at Elvington, along with nearly 80 of the four-engined Handley Page Halifax bombers ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-the-free-french-bombers.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Elvington: The American Plan That Never Was https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ After the war, Elvington spent a few years under RAF Maintenance Command, slowly winding down. Then in 1952 the United States Air Force took it over and rebuilt it on an entirely different scale. The Americans poured a new 3,094-metre runway, the longest in the north of England, ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-the-american-plan-that-never-was.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Elvington: Buccaneers and Quiet Years https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ After the Americans left, the runway sat available. The Blackburn Aircraft Company used it in the early 1960s for test flights of the Buccaneer, a low-level naval strike aircraft developed near Brough on the Humber. Elvington kept its status as an RAF relief landing ground, used ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-buccaneers-and-quiet-years.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Elvington: Land Speed Records https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ In October 1969, Ray Pickrell took a Dunstall Norton onto the Elvington runway and set a national record for the 750cc class flying quarter mile at 144.69 mph. A year later, Tony Densham drove the Ford-powered Commuter dragster to 207.6 mph over a flying kilometre, breaking the w...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-land-speed-records.mp3 0:06 5 full RAF Elvington: Today https://qualla.com/raf-elvington/ Elvington today is owned by Elvington Park Ltd and serves a dual purpose. The buildings and control tower house the Yorkshire Air Museum, founded in 1986, which preserves a complete Handley Page Halifax bomber and many other historic aircraft. The runway continues to host land-sp...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/6/raf-elvington-wp/gcx6-raf-elvington-today.mp3 0:06 6 full