Qualla: RAF Finningley

RAF Finningley: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MilborneOne, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first time a Vulcan B.2 entered RAF service, it landed at Finningley. The date was 1 July 1960, the aircraft was XH558, and the squadron was No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit, the V-bomber school. XH558 went on to outlive every other Vulcan that ever flew - restored, returned to the air in 2007, the last Vulcan in flying condition until October 2015, when the technical authorities withdrew their support and the Civil Aviation Authority grounded her for good. She came home to Finningley in 2011, where she sat in the open beside an English Electric Canberra. They are still there, weathering, while the airfield around them returns slowly to grass.

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Image: MilborneOne | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Finningley: From Zeppelin Hunters to Hampdens

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Theasby, CC BY 2.5. Finningley's military history began in 1916, when an emergency airstrip at Brancroft Farm, just south of the present site, took on Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c biplanes from No. 33 Squadron RFC. Their job was to intercept Zeppelins approaching Sheffield's steel mills from the Eas...

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Image: Neil Theasby | CC BY 2.5

RAF Finningley: Operational Training Units

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foto43, CC BY 2.0. Through the Second World War, Finningley's role was to finish bomber crews before they joined the night offensive. No. 106 Squadron arrived from RAF Cottesmore in October 1939, lost six Hampdens on minelaying sorties off the French Channel ports in 1940, and was reorganised into ...

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Image: Foto43 | CC BY 2.0

RAF Finningley: V-Force

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY 3.0. After a decade of training squadrons and an occasional reformed fighter unit - including No. 616 Squadron RAF flying de Havilland Mosquitoes, then Gloster Meteors - Finningley got its second life as a V-bomber base. Between 1955 and 1957 the runway was extended to 3,000 yards, an...

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Image: RuthAS | CC BY 3.0

RAF Finningley: Search and Rescue, and After

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY 3.0. When V-force units left for other bases in the late 1960s, Finningley moved to RAF Support Command and concentrated on training. All RAF navigators passed through the Air Navigation School of No. 6 Flying Training School, flying BAe Dominies and Jet Provosts and later British Aer...

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Image: RuthAS | CC BY 3.0